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CJQEXRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



Some Qualities Associated with Success 
in the Christian Ministry 



By 

MARY E. MOXCEY, Ph.D. 



Teachers College, Columbia University 
Contributions to Education, No. 122 



Published by 

tTeacfjetfii College, Columbia Winibtx^itf 

New York City 
1922 



Copyright, 1922, by Mary E. Moxcey 



1,° 



^■JV 



JUL 20 1922 

©CI.A674989 



PREFACE 

This study was undertaken as the completion of graduate work 
in religious education and psychology carried on in 191 3-1 5 in the 
Department of Educational Psychology, Teachers College, the 
Department of Psychology, Columbia University, and the Depart- 
ment of Religious Education, Union Theological Seminary. The 
data, collected during the year 1916-17, represent the cooperation 
of a large number of people to whom the writer's thanks are most 
gratefully rendered. First of all were hundreds of graduates of the 
theological schools who took time from busy pastoral or executive 
or professorial work to give painstaking answers to the question- 
naires. The officers and the office stafifs of Boston University School 
of Theology, Drew Theological Seminary, and Garrett Biblical 
Institute showed warm interest in the project and afforded every 
courtesy of access to their records of scholarship grades and every 
facility for copying them. The librarians of Union Theological 
Seminary and the Methodist Book Concern were most helpful in 
making available the theological journals and the minutes, cata- 
logues, and other printed material on which portions of the work are 
based. Especially helpful also were 'those members of the New 
York and New York East conferences who gave their judgments 
on the ability in four ministerial traits of their conference associates. 

That this work was finally completed is in large measure due to 
the stimiulating faith in its value of Professor George A. Coe, under 
whom the major courses of graduate study had been carried on. 
The problem of this dissertation was formulated and its solution 
worked out under the inspiration and direction of Professor E. L. 
Thorndike. To him the author is heartily grateful for unstinted 
generosity of interest and of statistical laboratory facilities, but 
m.ore than all for training in the spirit and the method of independ- 
ent research. 

M. E. M. 



CONTENTS 

INTRODUCTORY 

Page 

The Problem of Vocational Guidance in the Professions i 

Distinguishing Characteristics of the Ministry as a Profession i 

A . As Given by Various Writers 2 

B. As Stated by an Average Church Member 4 

C. Chosen and Defined for Purposes of This Study 5 

Statement of General Method of Procedure 6 



I 

A STUDY OF MEMBERS OF THE NEW YORK AND NEW YORK EAST 
CONFERENCES 

1. Judgments OF Fellow-Ministers ON 4 Distinctive Traits .... 7 

Method of Procedure in Obtaining Numerical Judgments 7 

Method of Testing Reliability of Judgments as Measures 8 

Table I. Reliability of Judgments of Associates 10 

Conclusions from Table i 10 

Table 2. Intercorrelation of Traits 12 

Correction for Attenuation (and Note i, Raw-Correlations) .... 12 

Conclusions from Table 2 - 12 

2. A Study of the Relation of Salary to Ability 14 

Sources, Selection, and Treatment of Data 14 

(Note 2. Raw- and Self-Correlations) 15 

Table J. Relation of Salary and Date of Entrance to Each of 4 

Ministerial Abilities 16 

Conclusions from Table 3 16 

Table 4. Relation of Salary to Ability (after Correction to Remove 

Effect of Time Element) 17 

3. A Study OF Conference Statistical Records 18 

Scope and Limitations of Figures in the Annual Minutes 18 

Method of Procedure 20 

A. Choice of Data, with Reasons 20 

B. Preliminary Testing of Records, 25 Pastors for 15 Years . . 21 

C. Testing the Reliability of the Numbers as Measures .... 21 

Fig. I. Form for 15 Years' Fiscal Record 22 

Fig. 2. Form for 15 Years' Pastoral Record 23 

Table 5. Reliability of Increase or Decrease 

Measures (by Plus and Minus Signs) 24 

Fig. J. Sample of Procedure, Increase and Decrease Percentages 26 



Table 6. Numerical and Percentage Increase or Decrease . . . 

Part I. In Church Membership 27 

Discussion of Results and Problems 27 

Part 2. In Sunday School Membership 30 

Discussion of Results and Problems 29 

Part 3. In Contributions to Mission Boards 31 

Discussion of Results and Problems 31 

Fig. 4. Typical Budget, 15 years of City Church 33 

Part 4. In Contributions to Other Benevolences 34 

Discussion of Results and Problems 33 

Summary of Table 6 compared with Table 5 35 

A Study of the Relation of Adjudged Ability to Recorded 

Achievement 35 

Method of Procedure 35 

(Note 3. Steps of Computations for Table 7.) 36 

Table 7. Correlation of Abilities with Achievements. 20 Conference 

Men for 15 Years 37 

Conclusions and Discussion 37 



II 

A STUDY OF GRADUATES FROM THREE METHODIST EPISCOPAL 
THEOLOGICAL SCHOOLS 

1. Introduction 40 

Direction of the Inquiry and Source of Material 40 

Extent of Material and Sample Questionnaire 40 

Scope and Limitations 41 

Premises and Working Basis: Criticisms and Defence of Salary and 

Prominence as Criteria 42 

Personal and Environmental Factors Measured 43 

Selection of Items and Method of Procedure 44 

Training Factors Measured 45 

2. A Study of the Official Records of Graduates of i 902-1 911 ... 45 

Boston University School of Theology 

Drew Theological Seminary 

Garrett Biblical Institute 

Summary of Data Obtained 55 

Table 8. Numerical Summary of Questionnaires Sent and Replies 

Received 46 

Table g. Occupations of Theological School Graduates, Status of 

1917 47 

Grades in Theological Schools 48 

I. Boston University School of Theology 48 

Table 10. Distribution of Individual Medians (Boston) ... 49 

Fig. 5. Distribution of Individual Medians (Boston) 50 



2. Drew Theological Seminary 50 

Fig. 6. Samples of Individual Records (Drew) 51 

Table 11. Distribution of Individual Medians (Drew) .... 52 

Fig. 7. Distribution of Individual Medians (Drew) 53 

3. Garrett Biblical Institute 53 

Table 12. Distribution of Individual Medians (Garrett) ... 54 

Fig. 8. Distribution of Individual Medians (Garrett) .... 55 

Professional and Geographical Distribution of Graduates 55 

1. Grades of Educational Men 56 

Table 13. Boston Graduates in Educational Work 57 

Table 14. Drew Seminary Graduates in Educational Work . . 58 
Table 15. Garrett Biblical Institute Graduates in Educational 

Work 59 

Table 16. Summary of Graduates in Academic Positions ... 59 

Fig. g. Summary of Grades of Educators 60 

2. Grades of Executives 61 

Table ly. Boston Graduates in Executive Work 61 

Table 18. Drew Graduates in Executive Work 61 

Table ig. Garrett Graduates in Executive Work 62 

Fig. 10. Summary of Grades of Executives 62 

3. Grades of Missionaries 63 

Table 20. Boston Graduates in Foreign Service 63 

Table 21. Drew Graduates in Foreign Service 64 

Table 22. Garrett Graduates in Foreign Service 65 

Deductions from Data of Occupations other than Pastorate ... 65 

Fig. II. Summary of Grades of Missionaries 65 

Grades of Seminary Men and Ability in Four Traits 66 

Relation of Seminary Grades to Abilities (39 Drew Graduates in 

Conference List) 67 

Relation of Theological School Grades to Occupation and Income 67 

Table 23. All Seminary Grades, Highest and Lowest One-Fifth 68 
Table 24. Salaries of Graduates Receiving Highest and Lowest 

Grades 69 

Fig. 12. Distribution of Salaries Received by Highest and Low- 
est Fifths in Scholarships 70 

Analysis of Data Obtained from Questionnaires ....... 72 

Table 25. Physical Data from Ministers Sending Reply .... 72 

Personal and Social Description 73 

Table 26. A. Boyhood Environment 73 

Table 26. B. Economic Environment 73 

Table 26. C. Combination of Community and Economic Factors 73 

Table 27. Early Opportunities Specified 75 

Table 28. Early Responsibilities Specified 76 

Individual Interests and Abilities 79 

Table 2g. Early Interests 80 

Table jo. Early Abilities 80 

Table ji. Adolescent Interests 80 

Table 32. Adolescent Abilities 81 



Table 33- Present Interests 8i 

Table 34. Present Abilities 81 

Dominating Interests 82 

Permanence of Interests 82 

Permanence and Degrees of Ability 83 

General Conclusions 83 



III 

A STUDY OF ESTIMATED VALUES OF CURRICULUM SUBJECTS IN 
COLLEGE AND THEOLOGICAL TRAINING 

Introduction 85 

1. Source AND Extent OF Data 86 

2. Analysis of Total Ratings of Curricula 88 

Table 35. Estimated Value of College Subjects 90 

Table 36. Estimated Value of Theological Subjects 92 

3. Analysis of Comparative Ratings by Special Groups 94 

Table 37. Comparison of Median Ratings, College 96 

Table 38. Comparison of Median Ratings, Theological 98 

4. Summary and Conclusions 99 



INTRODUCTORY 

In our complex modern life, one of the most vital problems af- 
fecting community and personal efficiency, comfort and happiness, 
is that of fitting the individual to his task. To increase the number 
of "successes" and decrease the number of "failures" of individuals in 
their work is the problem of vocational guidance. Its solution in- 
volves analyzing the work to be done to determine the requirements 
of its various operations, and analyzing the individual to find the 
performances of which he is most capable. 

In the fields of artisanship and manual employment this analysis 
of muscular and sensory requirements proceeds apace. In the pro- 
fessions but little accurate measurement has yet been attempted. 
Professor Seashore has thus analyzed the psychology of musicians, 
but this is a profession involving powers which are very possibly 
unit characters and are certainly to the average observer obviously 
specialized. Most professions evidently have many requirements, 
and a number of these are apparently common to two or more pro- 
fessions. Is "success" in a profession a matter of the preponderance 
of one ability, or of the fortunate combination of abilities? 

Gowin (The Executive and His Control of Men) has shown certain 
physical and mental traits to be associated with different degrees of 
success in executive positions. His is avowedly a study of traits 
common to success in many different professions. Hollingworth's 
Vocational Psychology records pioneer attempts to measure per- 
sonal traits which make up the differences in adaptability to situ- 
ations and requirements of different professions. 

An inquiry into factors of success in any profession must first 
choose some elements of that profession that are pertinent and 
distinctive. One profession is distinguished from another by (i) its 
purposes, (2) its activities, and (3) the specialized training required 
for carrying on those activities in pursuance of its purposes. How is 
the Christian ministry thus distinguished? What have the leaders 
in the ministry, and its professional journals, to say about its ideals 
and its standards and tests of success? 

It is perhaps to be expected that a profession so long established, 
and with such great historic traditions, should have less to say in 



2 Success in the Christian Ministry 

defining its special functions than new, self-conscious professions 
like those of the social worker and the religious educator. A study of 
the library Index to Periodical Literature for the past twenty or 
twenty-five years shows that many articles have been published 
dealing with the adaptation of the theological school to altered forms 
of activity and altered methods of accomplishing its purposes, but 
the purposes and activities themselves are largely taken for granted. 

In an editorial on the death of Dr. John Hall, The Methodist 
Review for November, 1898, discusses "The Tests of a Successful 
Ministry." Here the purpose of the Christian ministry is defined, 
"to save men and to build them up in the faith." Hence the "primary 
tests are the number of souls saved and the influence of the preacher's 
life and words," while "secondary tests, which are consequences of 
the above" are the "advancement of education, economic betterment 
and improvement of social life" in the community, and the minister's 
direct "influence on public affairs." The means, which are subordi- 
nate, are chiefly preaching and pastoral labor. Preaching is to be 
judged by its "truth and sincerity, its scholarly preparation and 
literary form." "It must accomplish its results by such means as 
approve themselves to the most thoughtful people as well as to the 
most pious." 

Under the heading "The Significance of the Personal Equation in 
the Ministry" {The Biblical World for August, 19 16), Orlo J. Price 
describes the "rapid differentiation of function" within the ministry 
due to the widening sphere of the church in recent years. He urges 
the church to train specialists rather than general practitioners 
and suggests that the tasks of the "prophet, engineer, educator" or 
the "preacher, teacher, business controller, music leader, community 
pastor and social worker" are each sufficient to demand the full time 
of one individual. He says that one person attempting all of these 
"lives below the line of personal efficiency for lack of salary." In 
another article, "The Theological Seminary and the Needs of the 
Modern Church" {Religious Education, October, 1916), Dr. Price 
sums up the church's needs as to leadership as preaching, instruction, 
organization for effective service, and pastoral work. 

Bishop Hamilton Baynes, in the Hibbert Journal (16: 103) 
declares the work of the clergy to be "to lead the church into the land 
not yet occupied by common conscience, where mammon-worship 
and worldliness and selfish competition and chaos prevail." In the 
succeeding issue of the Hibbert Journal (16: 310) the Reverend 



Introduction 3 

Joseph Wood says that "Preaching is the specialty of our vocation. 
It is the sermon that chiefly bears the brunt of the world's criticism 
of the church." He emphasizes the need to "study the listener's mind 
and needs rather than our own interests as subjects for sermons." 

Dr. Francis J. Hall, of the General Theological Seminary of 
New York, emphasizes (in the Constructive Quarterly, 4: 748) the 
same idea, that the preaching function of the ministry is paramount. 
He recognizes the obligation to continue to seek truth till it is found 
and to keep "an open mind to re-open even settled questions." "But 
the assurance that one has found the truth in a given direction 
carries with it the right to teach it as undoubtedly true"; and this 
method of teaching is "a normal condition. of its success. It is the 
readiness of normal folk to accept teaching confidently given that 
largely explains the spread of enlightenment among men in general." 
Apropos of this last statement may be quoted from Gowin {The 
Executive and His Control of Men, p. 45), "It may be pointed out 
that because in these times of reconstruction ministers as a class are 
too often without the clear and positive idea, hypocrisy stalks 
abroad in many a declining church. . . . What our social life most 
needs is a more clearly defined set of values with which, forward 
facing and positive, men and women can transact life's business 
with vigor." 

In a recent article In the American Journal of Theology (16: 161) 
"The Contribution of Critical Scholarship to Ministerial Efficiency," 
Dr. George Burman Foster challenges the standards and tests that 
seem to be taken for granted. "The dream Is of a scientific ministry 
instead of the old religious ministry. . . . The church Is not a 
temple but a 'plant.' " The watchword of "efficiency," then, "in a way 
that appeals to a superficial populace with quantitative standards, 
emphasizes results rather than ideals, vigor rather than cultivation, 
temporary success rather than wholeness of life, the greatness of him 
that 'taketh a city' rather than of him 'who ruleth his spirit."" In- 
stead of a "reliance on technique, machinery and capital" taking the 
place of divine power and Inspiration, Dr. Foster would test the 
minister's success by his sincerity and his sobriety of judgment in 
our age of doubt; because the formation of personality "is at once 
the primary need of man and the main concern of education." 

In more popular vein Is an article entitled "Success in the Ministry" 
which appeared In the Independent for September 2, 1907. The 
editors had asked a minister whom they considered conspicuously 



4 Success in the Christian Ministry 

successful to write it. He had finished college and theological school 
and was ordained at the age of twenty-four. At thirty-five he was 
pastor of a city church of i,ooo members conspicuous for wealth, 
culture and refinement, who gave him a salary of $5,000, and he 
received $2,000 more a year for lectures and articles and in fees and 
gifts. This minister says that any man who succeeds in the ministry 
could succeed out of it, and quotes Phillips Brooks: "No man ever 
ought to preach if he can help it." (This writer could not help it.) 
He gives six reasons for his "lack of failure": 

(i) A legacy from his father of capacity for industry. The one 
reason above all others for failure is lack of this requisite — "a loath- 
some thing, for it is laziness. Search here before you look elsewhere 
for failure." 

(2) From his mother a legacy of gentleness. It is the one thing 
needed to be a gentleman. "After I went to New York it took me 
six weeks to learn to wear my clothes and six more to learn a language 
of which the vocabulary is but small. . . ." "One must scorn to the 
death all counterfeit and sham. Doing this one will be happy and 
also one will be of use." 

(3) From a varied and hard experience in business, a drill in 
doing "the one hard thing that belongs to that job" — to "give 
it the best energy and not make a substitute for it of trifling details." 

(4) From varied mingling with men, a persuasion of their earnest- 
ness and intelligence which made his task "not to keep from preach- 
ing over their heads but to keep from preaching under their feet." 

(5) An inborn drop of melancholy and 

(6) An inborn sense of humor. "The combination is a blessed 
one" for "to dare to stand between God and men, one must be either 
impertinent or inspired" and the melancholy gives a sense of the 
seriousness of life and its situations. The sense of humor moreover is 
a combination of discrimination, finesse, caution and toleration. 
In both business and personal relations, one must know the relative 
importance of matters; "if his instinct does not prompt him, he w^ill 
never learn, and if he does not learn he will die young." 

Turning from these standards and tests suggested by prominent 
members of the profession, the investigator endeavored to find out 
what in the mind of the ordinary member of the congregation con- 
stituted a successful minister. This was best expressed by a woman 
who was a faithful and intelligent worker in a large church in a 
medium sized city, who spoke not only for herself but for others by 



Introduction 5 

summing up the comments of church officers, the young people, and 
the women's organizations. 

He must have (i) executive ability, "which includes complete 
planning, reliable execution and working through others." (2) A 
social attitude of personal interest shown by being cordial to all, by 
individualizing this interest, and by visiting among the people 
(among the parishioners this was the activity most heard about). 
(3) His pulpit equipment should include "a logical, rememberable 
structure," earnestness and force in delivery, facility in words, 
story-telling ability, and a well modulated voice — "not dropping 
his voice so the most important things are lost." (4) Sermon 
content is judged by the evident thoroughness of his biblical knowl- 
edge, the emotional warmth of conviction (especially of the reality 
of God), the sincerity of his own character and the experience 
back of his ideas ("Practicing what he preaches") and the practicality 
of the sermon application which should be encouraging and "not 
scolding or dictatorial." (5) He is expected to take leadership in 
activity, promoting good fellowship among the members ("a good 
mixer"), "appreciating the work done by the church members," and 
initiating "sufficient Christian activity to fill the lives of his people." 
(6) As to personal characteristics, good looks ("this matters only 
at first"), good manners and courtesy, good cheer and optimism are 
desired — and good clothes! ("We like our minister well dressed, that 
is, his clothes suitable to the occasion, well kept and neat.") 

The available material is patently fragmentary, vague, and 
unformulated. Yet from the reading of the many articles of which 
the above quotations are only the most telling, and from many 
conversations with interested leaders in the profession, there seemed 
to be certain real standards which may be thus formulated: 

(i) By common consent the purpose of the Christian ministry 
includes at least the effort to formulate and maintain ideals of 
conduct and belief, and the effort to organize social groups and 
institutions which will enable men and women to practice these ideals 
in daily life. 

(2) The activities of the Christian ministry include notably: 

(a) The public presentation of these ideals in sermons. 

(b) Visiting individuals and families of the church community to 
develop their allegiance to the ideals, and their activity in the special 
conduct of the Christian faith; these varied duties being familiarly 
summed up in the term pastoral care. 



6 Success in the Christian Ministry 

(c) The raising of money for various benevolent and missionary 
enterprises, its expenditure, and the stimulation and direction of the 
voluntary services of the church community in the accomplishment 
of cooperative enterprises. These duties require executive ability. 

(d) All those means of arousing the interest of the indifferent and 
careless, overcoming the opposition of the antagonistic, and other- 
wise transforming the unlike-minded into members of the like- 
minded Christian group, which are comprehensively known as 
evangelism. 

(3) While the relative proportion of those having their ministerial 
training in academic and professional schools to those who secure it 
empirically in the work of the pastorate itself varies in different 
denominations, there is nevertheless a widely accepted standard of 
desirable preparation, namely, graduation from college and from a 
theological school. 

It seemed, then, that inquiry regarding the problems suggested 
by the subject under consideration might profitably be conducted 
from two distinct angles: 

(i) The study of the achievements of a body of men engaged in 
the actual work of the Christian ministry; of the relation of their 
individual differences in the four factors named above; and of the 
relation of the amount of their professional training to those achieve- 
ments ; 

(2) A study of the characteristics of a body of men taking 
professional training for the work of the Christian ministry, as re- 
vealed by their natural interests and abilities, by their judgments 
on the training received, and by their instructors' rating of their 
capacity to receive that training. For these studies, the ministry of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church was chosen because more complete, 
intimate, and detailed information is available in print than for any 
other body of ministers. 



PART I 

A STUDY OF MEMBERS OF THE NEW YORK AND NEW 
YORK EAST CONFERENCES 

These two conferences together include in their bounds the whole 
of greater New York, and the type of parishes ranges from the larg- 
est metropolitan churches, through suburban, residence districts 
and small industrial towns, to rural circuits. From the printed 
Annual Minutes of these conferences, and from ministers in their 
membership, has been gathered the material for the first part of 
this study. 

I. Judgments of Fellow-Ministers 

The list of ministers receiving appointments at the April, 1916, 
sessions of these two conferences was the starting point of this in- 
quiry. The entire 487 names were arranged alphabetically with 
four blank spaces following each name, in columns numbered to 
correspond with the traits described on the instruction sheets. 
From the names on this list were chosen certain men on the basis 
of their opportunity for wide acquaintance with the work and 
personality of their brother ministers, such as active and former 
district superintendents, executive officers of denominational 
organizations, pastors long connected with the conference, prominent 
conference committee workers. To fifty-one such men were sent 
each a mimeographed copy of the alphabetical lists, a personal 
letter of request and explanation, and a copy of the direction sheet 
herewith reproduced. 

In the appended list are the names of all the active ministers in the New York 
and New York East Conferences. 

There are four columns following the names, numbered to correspond to the 
following traits: 

1. By Sermon Ability is meant the general sum of the vitality and value of 
the matter preached about, its style and structure, and the eloquence and force of 
its delivery, including voice modulation and pulpit manner. 

2. By Pastoral Ability is meant the work of visiting, befriending, comfort- 
ing, "bracing up" and inspiring individuals and families, of the church constitu- 
ency and strangers; and stimulating, promoting and organizing good fellowship, 
cooperativeness, and spiritual activity in the church constituency. 



8 Success in the Christian Ministry 

3. By Executive Ability is meant ability to see what details are necessary to 
make a project successful, to adapt them to changing conditions, to see that they 
are carried out, and to work through others. 

4. By Evangelistic Ability is meant the power to induce individuals who 
have been indifferent or hostile, to adopt Christian faith and conduct, habits and 
ideals. 

You are asked to grade each man whom you know, or know about, well enough 
to have any opinion about, in each of these traits, using the numbers i to 

5- 

Let 3 stand for the average of good ability in the given trait {i. e., perhaps half 
the marks will be 3). 2 will mean a very high order of ability, and i an exceptional 
ability. For a grade of ability less than the average in that trait, use 4; and for a 
trait in which a man has poor ability, use 5. 

Do not let your mark in one column influence your judgment of the same man 
in another column. Judge each man in each trait by itself. Work as rapidly as 
you can without feeling hurried; it is your "snap judgment" that is wanted. 

Of course all papers are strictly confidential. 

The rather brief time-Hmit set considerably reduced the number 
of repHes, as belated and apologetic letters proved. The attitude was 
in general one of cordial and interested cooperation. Some felt 
that the task would require an unworthy attitude of criticism, an 
impossible "sitting in judgment on their brethren," and others felt 
that their own work precluded the possibility of having first-hand 
knowledge of others' preaching. Several, however, testified that 
they found the classification of traits, and the division of degrees, 
quite natural and easy to follow. Those who were interview^ed 
personally were observed to score the judgments with ease and 
rapidity. In all, sets of usable returns were received from 28 judges, 
who had classified into the five places of the scale the four ^ traits 
of from 24 to 382 of their fellow ministers whom they "knew well 
enough to have an opinion about." Four hundred and seventy (470) 
of the 487 names on the total list received estimates from two or 
more judges. 

The first effort in the treatment of this material was to ascertain 
the reliability of these personal judgments as estimates of any 
man's ranking in the individual traits. It was therefore tabulated 
in the following manner: 

1 If one or more traits were omitted from the judgment of any individual the remain- 
ing ratings of that individual by that judge were thrown out; only complete judgments 
were used. 



The New York and New York East Conferences c 

Minister Judge i Judge 2 Judge j Judge 4 (etc. to 28) 



tXO 



6uO . . '5-0 • . <^0 



ShJ»0^ g^-vog S--::<08 g^VoS g^US 

^S«§ ^S«« ^S«^ ^Sw« »^ss*« 

RjC3«^ ^o'^^fi »5Q«5i ^Q«» ^0«Ei 

^a.f^i:5 ^a,k^hq c^a^k^kl coR^fc^k^ coOnfe^tq 



Class I, 


19 


men, 


Class II, 


28 


men, 


Class III, 


65 


men, 


Class IV. 


119 


men. 


Class V, 


126 


men, 


Class VI, 


113 


men. 



1 3233 2222 2334 1222 

2 33333243 

3 33333443 

4 1224 1233 2134 1123 
(etc. to 470) 

The individual ministers were then classified, according to the 
number of judges rating them, into six classes, as follows: 

rated by from 20 to 23 judges. 

28 men, rated by from 16 to 19 judges, 

rated by from 12 to 15 judges, 

rated by from 8 to 11 judges, 

rated by from 4 to 7 judges, 

rated by from 2 to 3 judges. 

For testing the reliability of the judgments the method of "ran- 
dom halves" was used. For each individual in Class I, the first 

10, II, or 12 consecutive judgments were averaged for each trait 
separately, and the averages recorded in columns la, 2a, 3a, 4a. 
The remaining ten or eleven judgments for these individuals were 
averaged and recorded in columns ib, 2b, 3&, and 4^. No attempt 
was made to have the judgments of the same judges recorded 
invariably in the same column, a or h. For the individuals in Class 

11, the averages of the first 8, 9, or 10 judges formed the four a 
columns, and the remaining 8 or 9 judgments became the h columns. 
And so on with each class. 

For finding the median from which individual deviations were 
to be reckoned, a distribution table for the entire six classes together 
was made of the four traits in the two halves. "By hypothesis," 
if the judgments were sufficient in number for perfect accuracy, 
and if directions were faithfully followed, the median should in 
every case have been 3. The actual result was: 



I a 


lb 


2 a 


2h 


J« 


3b 


4a 


4h 


3.0 


3-0 


2.6 


2.8 


2.8 


3.0 


3.0 


3-0 



In each column, however, the mode was 3 and the median of all 
the separate judgments was 3. The fraction of deviation was so 
small that the "perfect" median 3 was actually the most accurate 



lo Success in the Christian Ministry 

basis of comparison for all traits, columns and classes. Proceeding 
from this median 3, deviations of the scores of each individual by 
random halves of the judgments were recorded for the six classes 
separately. The reliability of these personal judgments of the rank- 
ing of the men in the four given traits, reckoned by the Pearson 
coefhcient of correlation between the random halves, is shown in 
Table I. 







TABLE I 








Reliability of 


Judgments of Ministers on Their Associates 


Zlass No. Men 


No. 


Trait I 


Trait 2 


Trait 3 


Trait 4 


Rated 


Judges 


{Sermon) 


(Pastoral) 


(Exec.) 


{Evangel. ) 


I 19 


20-23 


•975 


.911 


.9401 


.9523 


II 28 


16-19 


.865 


.748 


.897 


.679 


III 65 


12-15 


.772 


•757 


.653 


•505 


IV 119 


8-11 


.706 


.522 


.7206 


.629 


V 126 


4- 7 


.467 


•325 


•511 


•378 


VI 113 


2- 3 


.2508 


.III 


.211 


.158 



This shows that if 20 or 30 of his associates rate a minister on 
his ability to preach, to exercise pastoral care, to carry on 
the business of church organizations, and to influence the life and 
attitude of adults outside the church membership, the composite 
estimate will, in the case of each of the four traits, approximate 
the judgment of all of his associates closely enough to be con- 
sidered a true rating. The low correlation of Class VI is especially 
significant in view of the common practice of accepting the recom- 
mendation of a committee of two or three regarding a man's fitness 
for a position. Professor HoUingworth's experiments show that 
in the case of desirable traits, the possession of those traits by a 
person makes him a more accurate judge of them in other indi- 
viduals. All of the judges in the present study were, in the judg- 
ment of their fellows, possessed of these four traits in high degree. 
Yet in the case of the individuals judged by only two or three 
of them the correlation of their judgments ranged from +.11 
to +.25. 

Pulpit and candidate committees are usually composed of a 
somewhat larger number, say from five to seven, that is, of a num- 
ber comparable to Class V, the reliability of whose judgments runs 
from +.32 to +.51. It is therefore evident that in order to obtain 
a true rating of an individual's ability in such traits as these, it 



The New York and Neiv York East Conferences 1 1 

is desirable and usually necessary to secure the composite judg- 
ments of at least a score of individuals. 

The low correlation of Classes V and VI is due not merely to 
the fewness of the number of judges but also to the fact that these 
men were less well known. If only two or three men know an in- 
dividual well enough to venture an opinion about him, the chances 
are that their knowledge of him is actually less complete and 
certain. In the case of the better known men each judge's estimate 
is probably based on more adequate data and so is more reliable. 
For this reason the estimate of any two or three or half dozen of 
the 20 who judged the men in Class I would probably show a closer 
correlation in regard to those men than that of the like number in 
Class V and Class VI. Hence the rapid drop in correlation coefficients 
is only what might have been expected. On the other hand, there 
may be for certain specially prominent individuals a tradition which 
exerts a certain unconscious pressure on the rating given by the 
judges. In order to have a sufficient number of men for the purposes 
of this study it is necessary to include men from at least the first 
five classes, and in some instances from all six. 

Even when the self-correlation of two measures or estimates 
of the same fact is not high, if we know what those self-correlations 
are for each set of facts, we can compute what the intercorrela- 
tions of those facts are by the well-known formula of Spearman. 
(See Note i.) Consequently these judgments concerning the 
individual men and their ranking in the various traits make it 
possible to answer further questions. Thus, Does the possession 
of any one trait in high or low degree bear but a chance relation 
to the other traits, or are certain of the traits linked together, with 
chance relations to the rest? Are ministers in general single-talent 
men? That is, for example, does the possession of exceptional pulpit 
ability imply a compensating lack in executive or pastoral ability? 

Table II affords an interesting answer to these and numerous 
similar questions. Pairing each trait with each of the others, 
separately for each of the six number-of-judgment classes, and 
making the computation for the halves separately in each of these 
six pairs of traits, — column a with column h and h with a of each 
pair, — and then correcting for attenuation (see Note i), the fol- 
lowing relationships are seen. (In view of the considerations just 
stated, the arithmetical average of all the classes is probably nearest 
the true correlation in each case.) 



12 



Success in the Christian Ministry 









TABLE II 












[ntercorrelation of Traits for 470 


Methodist Ministers 




Class 


/ and 2 2 


I and J 


2 I and 4 2 


2 and J 2 


2 and 4 2 


3 


and 4^ 


I 


.890 


.857 


.704 


•751 


• 851 




.427 


II 


.506 


.699 


.072 


.672 


•643 




.360 


III 


473 


.799 


.189 


•587 


•723 




•331 


IV 


.286 


.718 


•445 


.469 


•757 




•517 


V 


•330 


.653 


•438 • 


•589 


1.060 




.856 


VI 


•497 


.908 


•683 


•333 


1.015 




.586 



Average 



.50=±=.0543 .77^.0253 42^.063 .57=^.0343 .84^.043.52^ 



•047"^ 



* Trait i is Sermon ability. 
Trait 2 is Pastoral ability. 
Trait 3 is Executive ability. 
Trait 4 is Evangelistic ability. 

* Probable Error. 

I. Note that the correlation of each trait with each of the others 
is positive. That is, in no case does the possession of marked 



Note i. For those who wish to follow or verify the details of the work, the raw 
correlations are as follows: 

Class ia-2b ib-2a ia-3b ib-3a ia-4b ib-4a 2a-3b 2b-3a 2a-4b 2b-4a 3a-4b 3b -4a 



I 


•834 


846 


.823 


.820 


.641 


.711 


.660 


• 731 


•749 


840 


•415 


.490 


II 


•305 


542 


• 593 


.640 - 


-.013 


.125 


•529 


•573 


•359 


585 


• 175 


.446 


III 


.312 


421 


.379 


.582- 


-.019 


.261 


•323 


•546 


.366 


545 


•293 


.123 


IV 


.244 


124 


.514 


• 511 


.336 


.263 


• 255 


•325 


•431 


437 


.349 


•349 


V 


•137 


121 


.338 


.302 


.265 


.128 


.270 


.213 


.376 


367 


.413 


•343 


VI 


.179 


039 


.182 


• 239 


.071 


.265 


.011 


.258 


.047 


.381 - 


-.013 


.229 



It must be remembered that these "raw" figures as they stand are as misleading as it 
would be to take, say, the arithmetical average of the amount of work a man did on two 
different days selected at random and call it his average daily accomphshment. It 
might be, but one day might be a national holiday and the other one on which he was 
coming down with typhoid fever; or both might be days on which he was working under 
special pressure and over time. These correlations are part of the "work" necessary to 
find the "answer." The two columns represent two independent measures of the series 
of facts measured. It is thus possible to make four correlations between the two pairs of 
measures of each two series of the measures to be correlated. By the use of the Spear- 
man formula. 



r pq = 



V(rpiq2) {rp2qi) 

V{rpip2) (fgigs) 



the attenuation due to chance inaccuracies in the two series of measures (for example 
Trait i, columns a and b, and Trait 2, columns a and b) is corrected, and the real 
correlation between Traits i and 2 is found to be that in Table II. 



The New York and Neiv York East Conferences 13 

ability in one trait imply a probable compensation of poor ability 
in any other. 

2. The high ability correlations occur between sermon and 
executive and between pastoral and evangelistic abilities. 

3. The abilities which are least closely linked are sermon and 
pastoral, sermon and evangelistic, and executive and evangelistic. 
Yet even here the correspondence is in general much closer than 
that between a man's grades in theological seminary and any of 
these four abilities. (See correlations on page 67.) The lowest of 
the correlations, that between sermon and evangelistic abilities, 
is exactly the same as that between sermon ability and ability to 
increase church membership ( + .42), and more than that between 
sermon ability and achievement in increasing contributions to 
benevolences or increasing one's own salary, respectively -\-.22 
and +.20. (See Table VII, page 37.) 

4. In Classes II and III the correlation is startlingly lower 
between Traits i and 4 (Sermon and Evangelistic abilities) than 
between the others. Note that in Table i the reliability of the judg- 
ments in Trait 4 (Evangelistic ability) is less than that of the 
other judgments in these classes. 

One contributing cause of this variation is known to the in- 
vestigator. The term "Evangelistic ability" was observed to have 
two sharply distinct connotations in. the minds of different judges. 
In some cases, at least, the carefully worded definition in the 
direction sheet was practically nullified by the habitual mind-set. 
Those with the well-defined concept of a generation ago, of a certain 
dogmatic content and revivalistic method, distinctly "marked 
down" in Trait 4 some individuals in Classes II and III whom they 
felt to be "dangerously intellectualistic" or "modern." In more 
than one case, on the other hand, judges remarked that they had 
"probably marked certain men quite differently from the general 
consensus of opinion" (regarding Trait 4) because they did "not 
believe revivalism was evangelism." 

Thus in Classes V and VI, correlations with Evangelistic ability 
go from .438 to 1.06.^ A glance through the columns of the "raw" 
correlations (given in Note i) shows that there, too, wherever 
Trait 4 occurs there is an upset in the even tenor of the figures; 

* This "more than perfect" correlation simply means as wide a variation on one side 
of a ratio that might be expected as on the other. From .86 to .66 would not be unusual ; 
from .86 to 1.06 means no greater variation. 



14 Success in the Christian Ministry 

more or less, perhaps, as the two schools of judges fall more or fewer 
into the same column by the random division into halves. 

5. Hence, with individual variations in the different traits 
falling, in the summarized judgments in all classes, between an 
extreme (for each individual) of two of the five points in the scale, 
an "exceptionally good" minister is from four to eight times as often 
apt to be "exceptionally good" in all of the component traits as 
he is to show an outstanding deficiency in some one of them. The 
inefficient executive is apt to be also a poor sermonizer or pastor. 
In general the mediocre man is a sum of mediocrities rather than 
a balance between brilliance in one ability and defect in another. 

It is evident, then, that these four qualities are definite factors 
in the work of the Christian ministry; that they are measurable 
by the method of judgment by associates; that these measures have 
a high degree of reliability; and that the four qualities are them- 
selves closely linked. 

The question at once arises, What is the correspondence between 
the degree in which an individual possesses these traits and the 
degree of public recognition of his work? One rough estimate of 
this recognition is at hand, namely, salary received. (For a discus- 
sion of the validity of this measure of "success," see Part II, pp. 
42-43.) We therefore proceed at once to study the relationship 
between these four traits in these ministers and the salaries paid 
them by the churches in these two conferences. 

2. A Study of the Relation of Salary to Ability 

In order to insure reliability in conclusions from any set of facts 
it is necessary to have two sets of measures of those facts. The 
two measures of salaries received by the men in this study are the 
records in the Annual Minutes of the New York and New York East 
Conferences, printed in 191 7 and 1920, of the salaries paid in the pre- 
ceding fiscal years. 

In the judgments by their associates 470 men of these two con- 
ferences had received ratings. Omitting Class VI leaves 367 who 
had been estimated by four or more judges. Of these 367 men, all 
of whom received appointments in one of the two conferences in 
the spring of 19 16, by the time of the 1920 Conference session some 
had died, several had retired or withdrawn, others were super- 
numerary, and many were in positions in the church other than 



The New York and New York East Conferences 15 

the pastorate so that the salary they received was not reported. 
However, 212 of the 367 men in the first five number-of -judgment 
classes were in the pastorate or district superintendency both in 
1916-17 and in 1919-20, and the amount of their salary for both 
years was a matter of printed record. 

A distribution table of the 212 salaries was made out for each 
of the two years, showing that the median salary of these men was 
$1800 in 1917, and in 1920 was $2100. The deviations of the indi- 
vidual salaries in the two years from the respective medians were 
taken as the tw^o measures of the salary fact, and correlated with 
the a and b columns of the deviations of the rating of these 212 
individuals from the median 3 in each of the four traits. The 
scattergram method of recording the paired measures was used, 
and the correlation coefficient was obtained by the method of unlike 
signs. (For these "raw" results, see Note 2.) 

Time may be expected to be a factor to be reckoned with in the 
matter of salary. In the early part of an individual's ministry 
time brings "experience," and presumably improvement in ability 
and in salary. In the last part of a long ministry the elapsing years 
mean "age" and probably decreasing salaries. Also in this particular 
three-year period the rising cost of living had somewhat affected 
even ministerial salaries. Hence the correlation of salary '17 with 
salary '20 was first figured. If a uniform percentage had been added 
to each salary the correlation would have been i.oo. It actually 

Note 2. For those who are interested in following the work, the raw correlations are 
as follows: 

Salary '17 with I a 
Salary '17 with II a 
Salary '17 with III a 
Salary '17 with IV a 
Date ot Entrance with 
Date of Entrance with 
Date of Entrance with 
Date of Entrance with 
Date of Entrance with Salary 
The self-correlations are: 

Sermon ability (I a, I b) + .67 

Pastoral abiHty (III a, II b) + .59 

Executive ability (III a. III b) + .61 

Evangelistic ability (IV a, IV b) -f .53 

Salary (ipi?. 1920) + .89 

The high self-correlations and the high raw correlations of the traits with salary are 
immediate indications of the reliabihty of both measures. 



+ 


.76 






Salary 


'20 with lb -t- 


.66 


-f- 


.48 






Salary 


'20 with II 6 + 


.40 


+ 


•75 






Salary 


'20 with III b -f 


•63 


+ 


•75 






Salary 


'20 with IV & + 


.40 




I a 


+ 


•15 


with 


lb -f .06 






II a 


- 


.09 


with 


116 - .09 






III a 


+ 


•13 


with 


III b - .04 






IV a 


4- 


•03 


with 


IV 6 -h .03 




5alc 


iry '17 


+ 


•35 


with Salary '20 -|- .03 





1 6 Success in the Christian Ministry 

was +.89, showing the effect of certain charges which in spite of 
the trend had not increased their salary apportionment, and of 
the varying increases in others. 

Yet three years would hardly be expected to have a very great 
effect on any individual's salary except in the case of those who 
during that period reached the peak of opportunity and promotion 
or of those who in that time began the descent toward retirement. 
To find the actual effect of this factor on this group of 212 ministers 
the salary figures for 191 7 and for 1920 were correlated separately 
with the date of entrance so that correction for attenuation might 
be made. The result is the low figure of +-ii. 

In order to take account of the factor of length of time in the 
ministry as it might affect individual abilities, the cross-correlations 
were computed between each man's date of entrance into the min- 
istry and the two measures of his ability in each of the four traits. 
(Of these 212 men 106 had begun their work in 1896 or earlier, and 
106 in 1897 or since. So their deviations by two-year periods from 
the median '96-*97 were used in correlating with both the a and 
h columns of Traits I, II, III, and IV. See Note 2 for the figures 
of these "raw" correlations.) 

Working out the self-correlations between all the various meas- 
ures of these men and using them to correct the cross-correlations 
by the Spearman formula, we have the relationship shown in 
Table III. 

TABLE III 

Relation of Salary and Date of Entrance to Each of Four Ministerial 

Abilities 

Salary with Sermon Ability r = -f- .916 

Salary with Pastoral Ability r = -\- .603 

Salary with Executive Ability r = -1- .931 

Salary with Evangelistic Ability r = -\- .80 

Date of Entrance with Sermon Ability r — -f- .03 

Date of Entrance with Pastoral Ability r = — .118 

Date of Entrance with Executive Ability r = -f- .07 
Date of Entrance with Evangelistic Ability r = + .04 

The reliability of the figures as measures (as shown by the self- 
correlations) is so high that we may safely accept certain conclu- 
sions which stand out clearly from this table. 

I. Congregations pay salaries in proportion first of all to that 
general ability to "make things go" known as executive ability; 



The New York and New York East Conferences 17 

next, and almost as much, for good sermons; while faithful personal 
care of the poor, the sick, the troubled and the bereaved does not 
secure salary recognition even comparable with that given to the 
warmth and fervor of evangelistic ability. 

2. Without a separate and complicated study it is not possible 
to interpret certainly the low correlations of date of entrance with 
abilities. Such an effect could be produced by a sharp contrast 
between the degree of these abilities in earliest and latest pro- 
fessional years and in the middle portion. It could also be an in- 
dication that these abilities w^ere determined by original capacity 
and little influenced by experience. A possible interpretation of 
the negative relation of length of ministry and pastoral excellence 
is that the zeal, the good cheer, and (perhaps most of all) the 
physical vigor of youth more than offset the experience of age. 

Small as are the separate correlations of the length of time in 
the ministry with salary and with the four traits, it is nevertheless 
worth while to eliminate as far as possible the time effect from the 
relationship of these abilities to success as grossly measured by 
salary. This is done by what is known as "partial correlation," a 
method for removing the effect of a third irrelevant variable to 
which the two series to be compared both correspond to any appre- 
ciable degree. Using the formula 

rpq' - (rp'") (rqv) 

V (i-V) {i-rqz^) 

to remove any Illegitimate influence of the date-of-entrance vari- 
able on the apparent relations of salary and ability (Table III) 
we have as the relation of salary and ability In the case of these 212 
men, if they had all been in the ministry the same length of time, the 
figures shown in Table IV. 

TABLE IV 
Relation of Salary to Ability (Factor of Time Element Removed) 

Salary with Sermon Ability r = + .919 

Salary with Pastoral Ability r = -{- -624 

Salary with Executive Ability r = + -9316 

Salary with Evangelistic Ability r = + .801 

It would have been possible to compute this effect even more 
closely by taking the group of very old and very young ministers 
and of those in the long stretch of maximum-efficiency years separ- 



1 8 Success in (he Christian Ministry 

ately, and computing all the cross-correlations and corrections for 
each group. But as Table IV differs from Table III by only from 
.0006 to .003 (except in the case of pastoral ability, where the 
correlation with salary is increased by .019) the labor was not under- 
taken. 

The conclusions from Table III are only strengthened by the 
corrections of Table IV. The various factors of ministerial success 
are qualities closely linked, but together exhibiting wide individual 
differences. These differences remain practically constant during 
at least the central period of active ministry. The degree in which 
a man is judged by a sufficient number of competent associates 
to possess these desirable traits is a fairly close measure of the scope 
he will find for exercising them and of the public recognition of his 
success, as indicated by the salaries paid by the churches to which 
he is appointed. 

3. A Study of Conference Statistical Records 

Turning from the measure of traits by the summation of personal 
judgments to the objective record of the work of these same men 
in their pastorates, what data are available for such objective 
determination? 

It is certain that there is much in the necessary work of every 
minister that cannot be put into statistics. Some of the most 
valuable results are never recorded, and the efforts which produce 
them have no objective measure. Even the recorded facts, such 
as additions to church membership, may have greatly varying 
weight on a scale of ultimate spiritual values. Increase in member- 
ship in one pastorate may mean faithful seeking of newcomers 
during an influx of industrial population and securing the transfer 
of church letters of adults. In another pastorate it may mean 
inspiring a group of active boys and girls to give a lifetime of service 
to the church. In a third community it may mean an evangelistic 
campaign for the reclamation of hardened sinners. Is the erection 
of a fine church edifice to be "credited" to the minister who builds 
it or to the one who prepares for it? Yet the only quantitative way 
to compare the achievements of a minister in different years, or 
the achievements of different ministers, is by the numbers of mem- 
bers or pupils or dollars or pastoral calls recorded. 

Every pastor in the Methodist Episcopal Church makes every 
year at his Annual Conference a detailed report of his "charge." 



The New York and New York East Conferences 19 

These reports are on blanks uniform throughout the denomination. 
The minutes of each annual conference print the figures from these 
reports in a tabular form, uniform for all the conferences, and these 
statistical tables are collected and also printed annually in the two 
volumes (Fall and Spring Conferences respectively) of the General 
Minutes of the denomination. 

The headings of these statistical tables are: 

Ministerial Support: Total amount paid pastor, including house rent. Rental 
value of parsonage. Deficiency. District superintendent, paid. Bishops claim, 
paid. Conference claimants' claim, paid. Total paid for ministerial support. 

Sunday Schools: Number officers and teachers. Total enrollment in all de- 
partments. 

Baptisms: Adults baptized. Children baptized. Baptized children who are 
under instruction as probationers. 

Church Membership: Probationers: enrolled during year, now on roll. Full 
members on roll, non-resident. Local preachers. Deaths during year, 

Epworth League: Senior members. Junior members. 

Church Property: Number of churches, estimated value. Number of parson- 
ages, estimated value. Paid for building and improvement on churches and par- 
sonages. Paid on old indebtedness on churches and parsonages. Present indebted- 
ness on churches and parsonages. Current expenses, sexton, fuel, light, etc. 

General Conference Expenses. Conference Entertainment Receipts. 

Missions: Board of Foreign Missions (church, special gifts, Sunday schools). 
Board of Home Missions and Church Extension (church, special gifts, Sunday 
schools). 

General Benevolences: Freedmen's Aid. Board of Education. Board of 
S. S. Conference claimants. Temperance. Bible Society. Epworth League. 
Brotherhood. Woman's Foreign Miss'ionary Society. Woman's Home Missionary 
Society. 

Other Benevolences and Miscellaneous. 

Of this amount of statistical material collected, tabulated and 
printed at such great expense of time, labor and money, much is 
obviously part of the mechanism for running a great connectional 
business, for ensuring accuracy and attention in so great and hetero- 
geneous a mass of working units. Does it contain any facts which 
might be significant measures of abilities and progress in the individ- 
ual pastors? By what method could such facts be detached from 
the impersonal files of "conferences," "districts" and "appointments" 
and so arranged as to show the achievements of the itinerant 
pastors? 

There could, of course, be no attempt to get back of the figures as 
given. It must be assumed that the numbers in the table were the 
actual number of members of each church at the transition from one 



20 Success in the Christian Ministry 

conference year to another and not sometimes an approximation. 
Ministers whose salary was reported as $750 must be assumed to 
have received $750, without speculation as to whether for one man 
$150 of it was only "promised" when he went to conference or 
whether wedding fees might have added $50 to the actual income of 
another. 

For purposes of experiment the following procedure was carried 
out in the present study. 

A. Among the tabular headings the following were chosen for 
attention, with the indicated questions in view: 

Pastor's Salary ("including house rent"). Does increase of a man's 
salary over his own salary of the previous year indicate either time- 
progress or increasing worth? Does increase over his predecessor's 
salary indicate relative-value judgments by the congregations? 

Church Membership (total of probationers and full members "now 
on roll"). Does the net annual increase or decrease of membership 
in a given church show anything significant regarding the pastor's 
special abilities? If one man habitually adds to the net membership 
of whatever church he is serving while another in general just about 
or not quite succeeds in keeping up with losses through death or 
removal, is there any ascertainable relation between these facts and 
the sermon, pastoral, executive or evangelistic abilities of the two 
men? 

Sunday School Membership ("total, all departments".) Can there 
be traced a relation between the incumbency of certain pastors and 
the fluctuations In the growth of the Sunday School? If so, in 
relation to what ministerial trait? 

Property Valuation. Is the tradition that certain men are (mate- 
rial) "builders" sustained by a record of new churches or parsonages 
or additions thereto in the charges these men have served? What 
special ability is indicated? 

Money Payment on Property. Are there some men who neglect 
the Insurance and repairs and others who always attend to them? 
Is there here any criterion of "executive ability"? 

Debts, Incurred or Paid Off. May this be a contributing item, 
throwing light on the same question of "executive" traits? 

Missions (Home and Foreign Boards). Is the amount paid to 
the great national and world-wide interests of the church a co- 
variant with the pastorate of a church? If so, what does zeal in this 
interest Indicate? 



The New York and New York East Conferences 21 

Benevolences (including all other local and general interests except 
the Epworth League, Methodist Brotherhood, and various expense 
accounts which vary with the proximity of conventions, and the 
like; and including here rather than in "Missions" the Women's 
Missionary Societies, home and foreign, because these are autono- 
mous and more dependent on local than pastoral leadership). Does 
this amount indicate anything, or anything other than what may be 
deduced from the data on Missions? 

B. To determine whether there is any significance, these figures 
must first be traced out for a series of individuals. Twenty-five was 
the minimum chosen for the preliminary testing out, and fifteen 
years seemed a reasonable length of time for the successive annual 
figures to show individual trends. Copies of the Annual Minutes of 
the New York and New York East Conferences were obtained for the 
fifteen years prior to and including 19 16 (from which Minutes the 
list had been made out for the judgments on the separate ministerial 
traits). The 19 16 Minutes give for each pastor then appointed his 
previous record of appointments, within and without his present 
conference. From these were first eliminated those who had not 
been in the pastorate within the bounds of these two conferences 
for the entire period of fifteen years. From the remainder were 
chosen twenty-five men, divided as evenly as possible between the 
two conferences and between the six classes in respect to the number 
of judgments made upon them by their fellow ministers. 

Referring to Table I for comparative numbers, by using as nearly 
as possible 5 per cent, this series was allotted as follows: 



Class 


I 


II 


III 


IV 


V 


VI 


umber of judgments 


20-23 


16-19 


12-15 


8-1 1 


4-7 


2-3 


umber of individuals 


19 


28 


65 


119 


126 


113 


umber for tabulation 


2 


2 


4 


6 


6 


5 



C. The first task in this experiment must be to determine the 
reliability of the figures as measures. Therefore, under each of the 
chosen headings, all figures were arranged in two columns by the 
eight even and seven odd calendar years. To get the figures for each 
individual minister, a table was made of all the charges each had 
served, by years, and the selected statistics were copied for these 
charges for every year in which any one of the twenty-five men was 
there, and for the year preceding such pastorate when any other than 
one of the twenty-five was the preceding incumbent. This informa- 



22 Success in the Christian Ministry 

tion was assembled according to the following scheme, for each of 
the ninety-nine churches served by the twenty-five men in the 
fifteen years. 





Pastor 


Salary 


Members 


.s. s. 


Church 
1 'alue 


Other 
IlcudivtiS 


Missions 


Benev- 
olences 


I90I 
1902 


A. B. 


$2,400 
2,400 


205 
168 


168 
168 


$75,000 
75,000 




$150 

75 


$86 
113 


1903 


not 25 
















1904 


not 25 
















1905 


not 25 
















1906 


not 25 
















1907 
1908 


not 25 
not 25 
















1909 


not 25 
















I9I0 

I9II 


not 25 
C. D. 


2,500 
2,000 


267 
341 


255 
288 


210,000 
225,000 




100 
160 


70 
244 


I9I2 


not 25 


2,000 


277 


331 


225,000 




124 


no 


I9I3 


E. F. 


2,000 


225 


326 


94,000 




202 


191 


I9I4 


E. F. 


2,000 


209 


342 


94,000 




176 


287 


I9I5 
I9I6 


E. F. 
G. H. 


2,500 
2,000 


219 

268 


282 

335 


94,000 
95,000 




172 

157 


345 
266 



Fig. I. Form for 15 Years' Fiscal Record of Each of 99 Charges 

From these charts of the churches served were then prepared 
charts for each of the twenty-five individual pastors; that for 
Individual No. 8 being given here as a sample. 

Explanation of Columns in Fig. 2 

Salary: Owing to the relative fixity of salaries on a given charge, and to the 
group or "grade" system of rotation when ministers are moved (explained in 
detail in Part II, p. 42) the significant thing under this item is not the amount 
of difference, but the fact of an actual increase or decrease of the man's salary as 
compared with his own in the preceding year, and with his predecessor's in a year 
when he was moved to a new appointment. Hence increase (plus); decrease 
(minus); and no change (equals) were the only records made. 

Members (Church and Sunday School): The figures refer in each case to the 
numerical increase or decrease of any given year over the directly preceding year 
in that church. For example: Rev. Mr. 8 in 1902, the first year of the record, is 
preaching at A. The church membership is 269. The 1901 Minutes show that in 
that (preceding) year the membership was 215. So in the even year column the 
first entry is +54. At the close of that conference year Mr. 8 is moved to B., and 
his report from B. in the 1903 Minutes shows a membership of 674. But the 1902 
membership at B. was 651. So in the first space in the odd-year column is entered 
+78. He remains at B., and in 1904 the membership is 697, which compared with 
the 1903 membership of 671 makes the second even-year entry +23; and so on. 



TJie New York and New York East Conferences 



23 



^ 


-0 




00 

+ 




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+ 




OC 

+ 




+ 




+ 




ON 

+ 




00 

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Value 


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24 Success in the Christian Ministry 

At C. where he is appointed in 1906, Mr. 8 adds to the original (1905) membership 
of 652, during the first 3 years, a total of 245 members, recorded by annual increase 
under the three entry-spaces; but in 1909 the membership drops from 897 to 860, 
so the entry for 1909 is —37. Thus each individual's work in sustaining the 
numerical strength of churches under his care is based on a comparison of suc- 
cessive years in the same church, not on the relative size of the churches to which 
he is sent. The same procedure is followed with the Sunday School figures. 

Property. Money paid on Repairs, etc. Debts paid or incurred: Under these three 
headings are recorded not amounts but the simple fact that no changes were made 
in the church and parsonage valuation (=), that new buildings or additions 
increased the valuation (+), or that an old building had been disposed of or 
valuation reduced to correspond with deterioration of property values ( — ); that 
money for repairs, etc., had (+ ) or had not ( — ) been spent; and that debts had 
been contracted ( — ) or paid (+) in part or in full. (Where there was no indebted- 
ness to pay, the fact is indicated by " = 0.") 

Missions and Benevolences: Under these, amounts of increase or decrease are 
recorded on the same basis of annual comparison with the same church as was 
used for membership records. 

As a preliminary method, only the algebraic sum of the pluses 
and minuses in each column in Fig. 2 was used as the measure for 
each individual. With this material a new table was formed, with 
the deviations of each individual from the median mark of the 
group, in each pair of columns, and the Pearson coefficient of 
correlation was calculated for the reliability of each of these nu- 
merical measures of these twenty-five men, with the results shown 
in Table V. 

TABLE V 

Reliability of Increase or Decrease Measures, by Plus and Minus Signs 

(Data from Fig. 2.) 

Increase or decrease of own salary r = + .09 

Increase or decrease over predecessor's salary r = -|- .198 

Increase or decrease of church memberships r = -\-..i^2 

Increase or decrease of Sunday School memberships r = — .049 

Increase or decrease of property valuation r=— .18 

Money paid or not paid on church property r=+ .69 

Debts incurred, paid, or left in statu quo r = + ,19 

Increase or decrease of amount paid for Missions r=— .16 

Increase or decrease of amount paid, other Benevolences .... r = + .057 

Such wide variations without apparent reason might possibly 
be due to the fact that the plus and minus measure is not fine enough 
to be reliable. Hence a new series of measures was made out for 
each of the four activities recorded under the statistical head- 
ings of Church members; Sunday School members; Missions: 



The New York and New York East Conferences 25 

and Benevolences, and worked through for the twenty-five men.^ 
In the method next followed, the numerical amount of increase 
or decrease over the preceding year, as recorded in the individual 
record of Fig. 2, was used as a percentage, and the rate was calculated 
on the base of the amount recorded in the year preceding the in- 
dividual's pastorate in a given church. Elements of error could 
be discerned in any practicable plan of choosing such a base, but 
this procedure was worked out on the hypothesis that a new pastor 
in his first year faces a certain situation as regards membership 
and habits of giving. His own personality and methods supply a 
new factor which may be supposed to be constant for the time of 
his pastorate. Hence the base for each year of a given pastorate 
remains that of the status left by his predecessor, not a new base 
of the situation as altered by succeeding years of his own efforts. 
Concretely: Taking again Individual No. 8 (cf. Fig. 2). The 
bases will be the number of members or the amounts paid for the 
year preceding the beginning of the tabulation (1901), and for 
the years preceding the beginning of each new pastorate, namely, 
in this case, 1902, 1905, 1909, 1910, 1913, and 1915. Working this 
out for the single item of church membership, reference to the 
minutes for the charges indicated here as A, B, C, D, E, F, and G, 
shows that the memberships at the beginnings of these successive 
pastorates of No. 8 were as follows: Members 

A 
B 
C 
D 
E 
F 
G 

The calculations for No. 8 are shown in Fig. 3. 

And so for each of the four measures for each of the tw^enty-five 
men, the average obtained by dividing the algebraic sum of the 
annual percentages of increase or decrease by the eight years in 
the "even year" and the seven in the "odd year" column was taken 
as the individual's measure in the trait in question. The result for 

5 For more elaborate computations only part of the measures were chosen for calcu- 
lation. Those activities which might seem to be most closely connected with the indi- 
viduality of the pastor rather than with the makeup and habits of the local offical 
board were the fluctuations in membership of church and Sunday school, and in con- 
tributions to intet^sts other than the local church enterprises. 



I90I 


215 


1902 


651 


1905 


652 


1909 


532 


I9I0 


572 


I9I3 


504 


I9I5 


752 



26 Success in the Christian Mi^iistry 

the twenty-five men is shown in Table VI, Parts i, 2, 3, and 4. 
In each part of the table, Column A (i) shows the total numerical 
net increase or decrease in members or dollars as the case may be, 
in the churches under the charge of these twenty-five ministers 
for the even years, 1902-1916 inclusive (cf. Fig. 2, p. 23). Column 

Column A — Even Years Column B — Odd Years 

Year Base Incr. or Rate % Year Base Incr. or Rate % 

Deer. Deer. 



1902 


215 (A) 


54 


.25 


1903 651 (B) 


78 


.12 


1904 


651 (B) 


23 


.035 


1905 651 (B) 


57 


.09 


1906 


652 (C) 


166 


•25 


1907 652 (C) 


56 


.085 


1908 


652 (C) 


23 


•035 


1909 652 (C) 


-37 


-.058 


I9IO 


532 (D) 


32 


.06 


191 1 572 (E) 


169 


.30 


I9I2 


572 (D) 


39 


.06 


1913 572 (E) 


3 


.005 


I9I4 


504 (F) 


70 


.15 


1915 504 (F) 


2J 


.05 


I9I6 


752 (G) 


-35 


-•05 
8) +.79 




- 






7) +.59 



+ 10% +8% 

Fig. 3. Sample of Procedure in Working Out Increase and Decrease 

Percentages 

A (2) gives the percentage of average annual net increase or decrease 
for the same ministers and charges for the same period (cf. Fig. 
3 above). Column B (i) and (2) gives the same facts for the odd 
years of the period, 1903-19 15. 

The figures as they stand are of interest. Taking first the gross 
totals; the net result of the labor for 15 years each of 25 pastors, 
so chosen as to be a representative sampling of the Methodist 
ministers of the two Conferences covering the territory of the largest 
city in the United States, is 4877, or a little less than 13 members 
each, per year. But actually the bulk of these were the additions 
under the pastorates of one fourth of these men, and the detailed 
records show that these were in those pastorates during which these 
men were in growing residence sections of the cities included. 

For 13 of the 25 men the algebraic or net totals of changes in 
membership occurring in the churches during their pastorates 
show an actual loss of 927 during this period. That is, if by some 
means the membership of the churches could have been preserved 
intact, without deaths or removals, it would have been larger than 
it was with all the additions secured by these men under their 
several pastorates. 



Tlie New York and New York East Conferences 



^1 



TABLE VI. PART 



UMERICAI 


. AND Percent. 


\.GE Increase or Decrease 


in Church 


Membership, 






1902-] 


[916 








Column A 


Column B 


{Numerical 


Individ. 


(I) 


(2) 


(I) 


(2) 


Total 




Total 


Av. % 
Annual 


Total 


Av. % 
Annual 


A and B) 


I 


491 


.095 


164 


.037 


655 


2 


1629 


•15 


620 


.07 


2249 


3 


-94 


-.06 


-197 


-.04 


-291 


4 


263 


.07 


45 


— .016 


308 


5 


-182 


— .004 


182 


.04 





6 


54 


.01 


-133 


— .02 


-79 


7 


10 


.007 


-37 


-.03 


-27 


8 


372 


.10 


347 


.08 


719 


9 


-86 


-.03 


27 


.006 


-59 


lO 


677 


.116 


356 


.07 


1033 


II 


lOI 


.04 


— II 


-•05 


90 


12 


— 22 


— .007 


-8 


— .006 


-30 


13 


128 


.09 


69 


.12 


197 


14 


— 220 


-.07 


18 


.005 


—202 


15 


-3 


-.025 


-8 


— .001 


— II 


i6 


53 


.025 


-21 


— .009 


32 


17 


116 


.04 


9 


— .004 


125 


i8 


70 


.06 


-76 


-.05 


-6 


19 


— II 


— .01 


-77 


— .02 


-88 


20 


-327 


-.04 


257 


.09 


-70 


21 


-108 


-•045 


227 


.11 


119 


22 


^7 


.045 


-15 


— .009 


72 


23 


31 


.015 


-54 


-•03 


-23 


24 


223 


.10 


-18 


— .006 


205 


^ 


-25 


— .01 


-16 


-.003 


-41 


Total 


3227 


.0156 


1650 


-.0066 


4877 



^ Median, not total. Median of two halves together, .005. The difference being so 
slight, zero was taken as the central tendency and the correlation was calculated with 
the figures as they stand. 

By the Pearson formula, r = +.32. 

In the "if" must be sought the reasons not only for the net losses 
under half of the ministers in this representative sampling of the 
two conferences, but also for the variations in the gains and losses 
in odd and even calendar years. Fifteen (60 per cent.) of the 25 
individuals show unlike signs when the two columns are compared, 
hence the reliability may well be expected to be low. (Cf. r = +.32.) 

One disturbing factor in this item is the difference in accuracy of 



28 Success in the Christian Ministry 

local church records from which the annual reports are made. In 
the shiftmg city population, what was said of one church is true of 
others: "It has an excellent machinery for gaining and recording 
new members, but no machinery for accounting accurately the 
losses among the transients." Some ministers take the records as 
they find them ; others have a passion for accuracy which leads them 
to "weed out" the membership roll as soon as they reach a new church 
(which probably accounts for the large "minus" in some of the first- 
year pastorates). In evident recognition of this source of error, the 
conference record blanks were changed once during the period 
covered by this study, to enter under separate divisions "members 
on roU" and "non-resident members." After this division appeared 
in the statistics, the "non-residents" were not included in the totals. 
This is actually the cause of some of the large negative numbers in a 
given year. But although a variable, it was considered to affect all 
the records. 

Another disturbing factor is the wide divergence of type in 
communities served by some of the individual men, including, for 
example, student assistantships in large churches, rural circuits, 
residential sections of town or suburbs, and great "downtown" 
churches in New York or New England cities. 

Cross-currents of mighty industrial, economic, and racial develop- 
ments are the greatest and most bafifling of all the variables affecting 
these figures. For example, let us trace one of the 50 per cent of the 
men showing a negative total for membership changes. Some of 
his pastorates have been in fields where the general conditions are 
known to this investigator (although the specific work of the man is 
not). 

One pastorate was in a manufacturing village where the Protestant 
church-going residents had been superseded by the influx into a 
certain industry of foreign-speaking Roman Catholics, who filled all 
the available housing within the territory of that church. Another of 
his appointments was in a small but growing city where the same in- 
dustrial-racial-religious change was complicated by the growing 
ambitions of the younger generation within the church itself. An 
appreciable percentage of the total membership was at that time 
between sixteen and twenty-four years of age. Within a short space 
of time so large a number of these had gone away to college and 
thence to professional life, or had married and moved away, or had 
identified themselves with a more "fashionable" church because of 



The New York and New York East Conferences 29 

their growing social ambitions, that not only was the numerical 
membership thereby much reduced, but the changes had also re- 
moved a large proportion of the church's active, vitalizing power 
to draw to itself new members. 

Another appointment of this same individual was in a still larger 
city where business and real-estate trends were swiftly altering the 
entire section within a workable radius from the church center, 
from residences of home-owning or steady-renting families with 
growing children, on one side, to a manufacturing and men's board- 
ing-house district. On the other, what residences remained became 
almost completely Jewish rather than Protestant. Under such 
circumstances habitual loss in membership totals is significant of 
the changing field and changing problems of the ministry as a 
whole, rather than of the possession or non-possession of certain 
personal traits by the individual minister. 

To make the figures of gain or loss in church membership under 
a given minister a reliable measure of any trait, it will be necessary 
to have (i) accurate records, in which all losses as well as gains are 
accounted annually; and (2) some means of enumerating and 
measuring the factors, other than the individuality of the pastor, 
which enter into the local situation. 

Taking up next the numerical and percentage increase or de- 
crease in Sunday school membership, the results are as shown in 
Table VI, Part 2. Indisputably, the increase or decrease of Sunday 
school membership is in itself no indication of anything whatever 
about the minister in charge. It is quite plain that all the variant 
factors which disturb the reliability of church membership as an 
index are also at work upon the development and growth of any 
given Sunday school. In some of the fields occupied at dififerent 
times by this random sampling of ministers, while it might be 
possible by special adaptations to build up a membership of transient 
industrial and boarding-house population, there might be no resi- 
dent children to form a proportionally large school. 

Moreover, while the church membership does in some degree re- 
flect the individual differences in successive ministers (the correlation 
though small is positive), some churches feel that the Sunday school 
is entirely the province of the local officers and teachers; and some 
pastors feel that it should be, and leave it to their more or less 
efficient initiative. About all that is certainly shown by these 
figures is that there is no defined or general relationship between 



30 



Success in the Christian Ministry 



the policy and conduct of the Sunday school and individual pastoral 
effort. 

TABLE VI. PART 2 



Numerical 


AND Percentage Increase 


OR Decrease in Sunday Schooi 






Membership, 


I 902-1916 








Column A 


Column B 


{Numerical 


Individ. 


(I) 


(2) 


(I) 


(2) 


Total 




Total 


Av. % 
Annual 


Total 


Av. % 
Annual 


A and B) 


I 


218 


.046 


38 


.045 


256 


2 


35 


.027 


318 


.04 


353 


3 


34 


.09 


— III 


— .01 


123 


4 


141 


.06 


467 


.22 


608 


5 


-377 


-.07 


143 


.01 


-234 


6 


17 


-.005 


195 


.06 


212 


7 


48 


.09 


6 


.06 


54 


8 


423 


.07 


220 


.06 


643 


9 


20 


.03 


-187 


-•03 


-167 


10 


-69 


-.017 


58 


.017 


-II 


II 


439 


.23 


-138 


-•05 


301 


12 


-52 


.02 


138 


.06 


86 


13 


III 


•075 


II 


•03 


122 


14 


-97 


— .01 


95 


.06 


—2 


15 


84 


.03 


-93 


-.04 


-9 


16 


53 


.02 


21 


.02 


74 


17 


205 


.17 


-51 


-.003 


154 


18 


14 


.002 


7 


— .01 


21 


19 


-216 


— .10 


132 


.10 


-84 


20 


-270 


-.005 


99 


.028 


-171 


21 


119 


.18 


— no 


-.09 


9 


22 


17 


.045 


102 


.04 


119 


23 


12 


.00 





.004 


12 


24 


-38 


— .01 


125 


.07 


87 


25_ 


-125 


-.03 


30 


-.008 


-95 


Total 


946 


.027 ^ 


1515 


.03^ 


2461 



■^ Median, not total. Median of two halves together, +.03. From the median +-03 
as the central tendency, a new table of individual deviations was made and the coeffi- 
cient of reliability calculated between the odd- and even-year columns. 
By the Pearson formula, r = —.42. 

Quite different is the result shown in Table VI, Part 3, the 
numerical or percentage increase or decrease in contributions to the 
Mission Boards. The high reliability of these figures (^=+.87) 
might possibly have been expected from inspection of the like and 
unlike signs between the two columns of percentages, but the super- 



The New York ajid New York East Conferences 



31 



ficial comparison between the numerical and percentage columns 
shows apparently startling discrepancies. For example, note 
Individual No. 10. How can a man who in even calendar years 
annually increases the missionary collection by 227 per cent show 
a total deficiency of $176 in the same period? The explanation is 



TABLE VI. PART 3 

Numerical and Percentage Increase or Decrease in Contributions to the 
Mission Boards, 1902-1916 



Individ. 



I 

2 
3 
4 
5 
6 

7 
8 

9 
10 
II 
12 
13 
14 
15 
16 

17 
18 

19 
20 
21 
22 
23 
24 

£1 

Total 



Column A 
(I) (2) 

Total Av. % 

Annual 



$ -258 

-7412 

185 

279 

—2269 

-309 

20 

-558 

205 

-176 

16 

-53 

-4 

-37 

434 

— III 

639 
62 

-3 

91 

-43 

-27 

72 

-116 

30 

$ -9343 



.15 

.85 

.05 

4-35 

-.04 

— .11 

I. II 

.12 

.11 

2.27 

•25 
.04 
.11 
•38 
.36 
.07 
.38 
.71 
.07 
.06 

.23 

-.09 

.55 

-•03 

.06 



Column B 
(I) (2) 

Total Av. % 

Annual 



5 390 
4844 

-459 

172 

2042 

283 

58 

979 

-119 

285 

—21 

108 

108 

485 

-50 

-17 

-325 

20 

13 

13 

-19 

— 240 
47 
30 
16 

$8643 



.22 

1.27 

-.07 

2.07 

.18 

-.05 
.96 
.26 
.09 
3.01 
•31 
•31 
.28 
.66 
•36 
.21 
.08 

•37 
.01 
.12 
■23 
-.37 
.83 
.05 
•04 
.23 ' 



{Numerical 

Total 
A and B) 

$ 132 

-2568 

-274 

451 

—227 

-26 

78 

421 

86 

109 

-5 

55 

104 

448 

384 

-128 

314 

82 

10 

104 

-62 

-267 

119 

-86 

46 

$ -700 



8 Median, not total. Median of two halves together, +-2i. With due consideration 
for the mode as well as the median of the two columns, +.20 was taken as the best 
expression of the central tendency. The necessary table of deviations was worked out 
and the reliability correlation calculated between the money-raising achievements of 
the odd- and even-years. 

By the Pearson formula, y = +.87. 



32 Success in the Christian Ministry 

in the basis of comparison. The "deficiency" relates to the gain or 
loss, absolutely, compared with each preceding year. The rate is the 
average, in each pastorate, compared with what the church was 
paying the year before that minister's arrival. So it happens in this 
case ; on a base of $60 as the total paid to both mission boards the 
last year of the preceding pastorate, the first year shows a payment 
of $135, or an increase of 125 per cent. When by special effort in 
another year the sum of $408 is raised, the payment of $285 the 
year following that, although it is a numerical loss, compared with 
the preceding year, of $123, is still an increase for the year of 375 
per cent over the church's original basis. 

So with Minister No. 17, who shows in his odd years an annual 
increase rate of 8 per cent, side by side with a net money loss, 
compared with each highest possible point, of $325. In his early 
years, on small country charges used to paying from $30 to $100 
for Missions, he raised the general level of their giving to double 
or treble that amount, although the years showed fluctuations 
from this new, higher level. In later, larger churches, similar 
fluctuations from a level still in general higher than that reached 
by his immediate predecessors, might be in amounts between 
$100 and $200. A drop of $100 in a single year in a city church 
whose level of missionary giving had been raised from an average 
of $300 to an average of $600 would not push the average annual 
increase below the positive rate, but it would cancel numerically 
the $20 to $50 gains of several of the earlier years. 

For this reason, while there is the difficulty, shown by the case 
of Ind. No. 10 with a long pastorate in a fast-growing church, that 
continuous comparison with the church's feebler years is not fair, 
in most of the twenty-five cases the ability of the local church was 
a sufficiently constant factor to make the basis of comparison with 
the year preceding each pastor's accession more just than either 
the mere fact of increase or decrease, or the total numerical amount 
thereof. It may be worth while to give a sample of the record of 
one church under different pastorates (Fig. 4) to show this constancy. 

Here observe that the salary varies with the pastor rather than 
with the numerical strength of church membership; that the 
amount paid for Missions shows general trends, within fluctuating 
limits, for each of the pastorates, and that this trend is not a co- 
variant with the numerical church membership; and that varia- 
tions in "missions" and "general benevolences" tend in general 



The New York and New York East Conferences 33 

to be in direct rather than In Inverse (compensating) proportion 
to each other. 



Year 


Pastor 


Salary 


Members 


5.5. 


Prop. Val. 


Missions 


Benev. 


1902 


A. B. 


$4,100 


527 


305 


$91,000 


$436 


$1,058 


1903 


A. B. 


4,100 


524 


357 


91,000 


262 


1,537 


1904 


C. D. 


2,600 


574 


309 


91,000 


462 


1,102 


1905 


C. D. 


2,800 


603 


374 


91,000 


474 


1.351 


1906 


C. D. 


3,000 


626 


313 


91,000 


640 


1,664 


1907 


C. D. 


3,000 


588 


298 


90,000 


640 


2,050 


1908 


CD. 


3,000 


542 


322 


90,000 


700 


1,633 


1909 


E. F. 


3,000 


548 


315 


90,000 


670 


1,796 


1910 


E. F. 


3,000 


608 


403 


90,000 


420 


1,722 


1911 


G. H. 


3,000 


552 


419 


90,000 


950 


1,863 


1912 


G. H. 


3,000 


422 


478 


90,000 


810 


2,078 


1913 


G. H. 


3,000 


409 


367 


90,000 


600 


2,741 


1914 


G. H. 


3,000 


377 


381 


94,000 


670 


14,933 


1915 


G. H. 


3,000 


409 


406 


94,000 


690 


1,556 



1916 I.J. 2,400 458 433 90,000 511 1,564 

Fig. 4. Budget for Fifteen Years of a Typical Medium City "First Church" 

In general, the comments on Part 4 of Table VI are the same as 
those on Part 3. Perhaps a little more frequently the detailed 
figures show some mighty effort for an unusual sum for some special 
object, followed by a drop to the level, or a trifle below that, of 
the preceding year. This explains the still wider divergence between 
the signs and the relative size of amounts and percentages. It 
also shows that as some concrete, nearer call may rouse a congrega- 
tion to special efforts In giving, with or without reference to the 
efforts and purposes of the pastor, the amount paid to the denomina- 
tion's constant but more distant responsibilities via the Mission 
Boards is, as one might expect to find, more dependent upon his 
plans and methods. So, while both figures have some positive relia- 
bility as a measure of individual traits of successive pastors, the 
amounts paid to the Mission Boards are a more reliable index than 
those given to the rest of the church benevolences. 

It was part of the original plan, if the study of the data of the 
Conference Minutes proved fruitful for this sampling of twenty- 
five men, to carry out the method for two or three hundred, or as 



34 



Success in the Christian Ministry 



TABLE VI. PART 4 

Numerical and Percentage Increase or Decrease in Contributions to 
Other Benevolences, 19)2-1916 



hidivid. 



I 
2 
3 
4 
5 
6 

7 
8 

9 
10 
II 
12 
13 
14 
15 
16 

17 

18 

19 
20 
21 
22 
23 
24 
25 

Total 



Column A 



Column B 



(I) 
Total 

$ 622 

-9935 

400 

1 140 

2149 

1573 

63 

967 

1036 

-45 
250 

254 
-447 
12560 
—210 

511 
117 

3 

286 

4418 

377 

-500 

160 

30 

258 



(2) 
Av. % 
Annual 

•33 
1.40 
.09 
.70 
.52 
.66 

3-67 
.04 
.40 
.47 

-.03 
.46 

-.38 
.60 
.12 
•49 
.36 
•52 
.69 
1. 16 
.02 
.62 

•79 

— .22 

•37 

.47^ 



(I) 
Total 

$-637 

22768 

-1666 

1504 

-2503 

-545 

447 

2739 

536 

196 

—296 

462 

-34 

— 12621 

-82 

-301 

-563 

145 

-233 

—4022 

-343 
509 
246 

-371 
—242 



(2) 
Av. % 
Annual 

•37 

1.85 

.11 

1.37 

.09 

.18 

3-27 

•49 

.24 

•58 

-•49 
•53 

-•32 
•15 
•27 
.42 
.01 
.67 
•13 
•29 

-.09 
1.27 
1^36 

-•39 
•15 



(Numerical 

Total 
A and B) 

% -15 

12833 

-1266 

2644 

-354 
1028 

510 

3706 

1572 

151 

-46 

716 

-481 

-61 

— 292 

210 

-446 

148 

53 

396 

34 

9 

406 

-341 
16 



$5093 



■27 



$21130 



$16037 

^ Median, not total. Median of two halves together, between +.37 and +.40. 
Tabulating deviations from +.40 as the central tendency, the coefficient of reliability 
was calculated between the two columns. By the Peareon formula, r — +.43. 

many as had been in the conferences a certain length of time. In 
view of the low reliability of most of the measures, the results that 
could thus be obtained would not justify the large amount of labor 
involved. However, it did seem worth while to use the best of 
the measures for correlation with the estimated abilities of these 
men, as a suggestion for what might be done in the future, when 
more reliable measures are available for some considerable body of 
ministers. 



The New York and New York East Conferences 35 

Summary of Table VI Compared with Table V. Rell\bility Coefficients 

Average Annual Increase or Decrease Per Cent Plus and 

Minus 

Church Membership r = +.32 r = +42 

Sunday School Membership r = —.4.2 r = — .04 

Contributions to Mission Boards r = +.87 r = —.011 

Contributions to Other Benevolences r = +.43 r = +.057 



4. A Study of the Relation of Adjudged Ability to 
Recorded Achievements 

Comparing the reliability measures obtained by the two methods 
and bearing in mind the explanatory comments regarding the 
significances of the gross annual differences In money contributions 
and the annual average percentages thereof, the following Items 
were chosen for correlation with the four traits for which all the 
men had been judged: 



Increase of Contributions to Mission Boards r = +.87 

Increase of Contributions to Benevolences r = +.43 

Percentage of Increase or Decrease, Church Memberships . . r = +.42 

Payment of Money on Church Property and Improvements . r = +.69 

Increase or Decrease of Own Salary r = +.09 



For the cross-correlations, five of the twenty-five ministers 
studied in the preceding section were omitted because they had 
been rated by fewer than four judges. For the remaining twenty 
the usual procedure was followed for finding the Pearson coefficients 
for the paired halves of each two sets of measures, and correcting 
for attenuation by the Spearman formula. Instead of attempting 
to find the central tendency of this small group the deviations in 
the four traits were taken from the median 3 because the sig- 
nificance of these measures lay in the man's ability relative to the 
general conference average. For the same reason the deviations 
In the five achievements were taken from the median of the entire 
twenty-five for whom the records had been tabulated. Note 3 
gives the steps of the computations. It is Interesting to note that 
the self-correlations for this group selected from five of the six 
classes are higher than for the average of all the classes in those 
traits. The self-correlation in the items of achievement varies 
somewhat but Is In general higher for the twenty men than for the 
twenty- five. 



36 



Success in the Christian Ministry 



Table VII gives the relations between the four traits judged by 
their associates and the five items from the 15 years' annual records. 

Note 3. The details of the work for obtaining Table VII are as follows: (The 
numbers relate to the 4 traits). 



Cross-Correlations 



a with Missions b + -58 

a with Benevolences b . . . . + .25 

a with Church Membership a . +.217 

a with Money Improvements b — .20 

a with Salary b — .22 



I b with Missions a + 

I b with Benevolences a . . . + 

I b with Church Membership a . + 

I b with Money Improvements a — 



I b with Salary a + .39 



II a with Missions b 

II a with Benevolences b . . . . 
II a with Church Membership b . 
11 a with Money Improvements b 
II a with Salary 



+ .48 II b with Missions a + -37 

+ .16 II 6 with Benevolences a . . . + .16 

+ .49 II b with Church Membership a . + .55 

— .02 II & with Money Improvements a — .03 

-j- .23 II b with Salary a + -13 



III a with Missions b + .52 

III a with Benevolences b . . . . + .28 

III a with Church Membership 6 . + .30 

III a with Money Improvements b — .11 

III a with Salary b + .11 



III & with Missions a + -57 

III 6 with Benevolences a . . . + .07 
III b with Church Membership a . + .92 
III b with Money Improvements a — .09 
III b with Salary a + .24 



IV a with Missions b + -57 

IV a with Benevolences b . . . . -f- .21 

IV a with Church Membership 6 . +.50 

IV a with Money Improvements b + .18 

IV a with Salary b — .01 



IV b with Missions a -f .21 

IV b with Benevolences a . . . + .03 
IV b with Church Membership a . + .17 
IV 6 with Money Improvements a + .14 
IV b with Salary a + .32 



Self-Correlations 
Deviations of 20 Men from General Medians 

I (Sermon ability) a and b . . . . 

II (Pastoral ability) a and b . . . . 

III (Executive ability) a and b . . . 

IV (Evangel, ability) a and b ... 

Missions a and b 

Benevolences a and b 

Church Membership a and b . . . . 
Money Improvements a and b . . . 
Salary a and b 



+ 


.91 


+ 


.86 


+ 


.84 


+ 


•73 


+ 


.86 


+ 


.81 


+ 


.48 


+ 


•53 


+ 


.19 



The reader will understand the abbreviations used in the tables 
hereafter. 

Missionary means average annual percentage of increase or decrease of contribu- 
tions to the Mission Boards. 

Benevolences means average annual percentage of increase or decrease of contribu- 
tions to all other benevolences. 



The New York and New York East Conferences 37 

Church Membership means average annual percentage of increase or decrease 

in the membership of the churches served. 
Money Improvements means the algebraic total of "paid" or "not paid" on ch urch 

property and improvements, regardless of amounts. 
Own Salary means the increase or decrease of a man's salary over his own of each 

preceding year, regardless of amounts. 

TABLE VII 

Correlation of Abilities with Achievements. 20 Conference Men for 

15 Years 

Sermon ability with Missionary + .54 

Sermon ability with Benevolences + .22 

Sermon ability with Church Memberships -(- .42 

Sermon ability with Money Improvements — .11 

Sermon ability with Own Salary + .20 

Pastoral ability with Missionary + -49 

Pastoral ability with Benevolences +.19 

Pastoral ability with Church Memberships + .78 

Pastoral ability with Money Improvements — .035 

Pastoral ability with Own Salary + .42 

Executive ability with Missionary + .64 

Executive ability with Benevolences +.17 

Executive ability with Church Memberships + -93 

Executive ability with Money Improvements — -15 

Executive ability with Own Salary * + .40 

Evangelistic ability w^ith Missionary +44 

Evangelistic ability with Benevolences + .14 

Evangelistic ability with Church Memberships + .48 

Evangelistic ability with Money Improvements + .14 

Evangelistic ability with Own Salary + .48 

Bearing in mind that the fewness of the men measured and the 
low reliability of the measures of achievements do not admit any 
certain deductions, nevertheless the figures as they stand show 
interesting trends. 

I. The church which desires to increase its membership should 
seek first of all for a pastor with executive ability, and next with 
pastoral ability. It is evident that the "ability to see what details 
are necessary to make a project successful, to adapt them to chang- 
ing conditions, to see that they are carried out and to work through 
others," and the pastor's personal interest in the members of the 



38 Success in the Christian Ministry 

church community have more to do with the power of a church 
to attract and assimilate new material than has the public appeal 
of sermons or the evangelistic effort to overcome hostility and 
indifference . 

2. The probability that contributions to the Missionary Boards 
would depend more upon the efforts of the minister and his success 
in making sufficiently gripping the distant appeal than would the 
more concrete objects of "other benevolences" is borne out. The 
relationship of all four traits with missionary achievement ( + .54, 
+ 49, +.64, +.44) is from two to four times as close as that of 
these traits with benevolent contributions ( + .22, +.19, +.17, 

+ •14). 

3. The popular idea that there is no particular relationship 
between preaching fine sermons and attending to the material 
details of church housekeeping, or that they "do not go together," 
seems to be borne out in these 20 instances, by the ratio of —.11. 
Strangely enough there is an even greater negative relation between 
executive ability and this particular achievement, while the 
only positive correlation is with evangelistic ability. These 
low and negative correlations combined with a fairly high self- 
correlation may indicate that there is no relation between this 
achievement and the four abilities considered, or that some dis- 
turbing factor is at work which is not brought out in the printed 
records. 

4. It is somewhat startling to find that evangelistic ability has 
less influence on increase of church membership than any of the 
other traits except sermon ability. Although this trait has no stronger 
influence than that on church membership, yet its effect on the 
increase of the pastor's own salary is exactly the same. In fact, 
if a minister wished deliberately to work to increase his salary, 
these figures indicate that the surest way to do it would be to cul- 
tivate evangelistic ability. Fervor and enthusiasm dispose people 
favorably toward the minister who displays them. 

5. The close correlation of amount of salary with ability as judged 
by associates, the low correlation of date of entrance with salary, 
and the slight effect of length of service on salary when the partial 
correlation was made for the entire 212 men without separating 
into groups (see Tables III and IV) point in the same general direc- 
tion as the figures in Table VII. Here the record of each man's 
salary increase for 15 years correlates with his various abilities in 



The New York and New York East Confere^ices 39 

ratios of from only .20 to 48, while the self-correlation of salary 
increase among these 20 men is but .19. Whether the cause be 
that a man quickly reaches his "level" of worth, or that there is no 
elasticity in salary possibilities to allow for growing ability, the 
fact shows plainly from the study both of the group of 20 and of 
212 that length of time in professional service has in general no 
close relation to salary received. 

6. The chief conclusion is that the types of achievements re- 
corded in the printed annual reports are not those by which a 
minister's "success" is to be most certainly judged. Contributions 
to the great missionary enterprises of the church form one real 
measure, for the reasons already detailed. For greater reliability 
as measures of anything the records of church membership need a 
uniform accuracy in annual revision. The significance of the 
numbers would be greatly increased if they were accompanied by 
figures showing such facts as are being gathered by many churches 
through a "community survey," or a religious census of the local field. 

The statistics of Sunday schools proved to be useless as measures 
of anything whatever, yet the religious nurture of children and 
youth is one of the most important functions of the ministry. 
Careful records of the child population of the community as a 
guide to interpreting the numbers in attendance, and a standard 
of how many Sundays constitute a child an "attendant" would be 
the first step. Then a checking up with such standards as graded 
instruction and worship, trained teachers, organized activities, 
and pupils coming into church membership and into specific service 
in the church would afford measurable information about more 
vital elements in ministerial success than do the money value of 
church property and payments for material improvements. 



PART II 

A STUDY OF GRADUATES FROM THREE METHODIST 
EPISCOPAL THEOLOGICAL SCHOOLS 

I. Introduction 

Direction of the Inquiry. What sort of men are attracted to 
the work of the Christian ministry? Within what hmits do indi- 
vidual variations among these men occur? Do they show any 
well-defined tendencies? Which are the characteristics favorable 
for success? How far may the possession of these characteristics 
be determined before or during the period of training for the min- 
istry? These are problems significant for vocational guidance. 

Source of Material. For investigation of these questions, the 
data were chosen as follows: For comparison with the foregoing 
studies of the Methodist ministry, men taking their training in 
theological schools preparing for that ministry would be under 
the operation of the same selective tendencies as those which de- 
termine the personalities and the standards of the Methodist 
ministry as a whole. Hence this study is limited to graduates from 
the three largest Methodist theological schools, Boston University 
School of Theology, Drew Theological Seminary, and Garrett 
Biblical Institute. 

In order to have a number large enough for reliability without 
being unwieldy, the study was limited to the graduates of one decade. 
And in order that all the men should have had somewhat nearly 
the same opportunity for service after graduation, to compare 
the records of the later graduates with the earlier ones, the end 
of the decade was placed five years before the beginning of the 
study. 

Thus the basis of this portion of the present inquiry is the char- 
acteristics and achievements of the men graduating from Boston 
University School of Theology, Garrett Biblical Institute and Drew 
Theological Seminary, during the years 1902-1911, inclusive. 

Extent of the Material. For those graduates the objective data 
available consist of the oflfice records of the grades reached in their 
theological studies, and the records in Annual Conference Minutes 






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Name Date of Birth 

Height (with shoes) Weight (with ordinary clothing) 

Childhood environment: City Village Country. 

Struggle Comfort Ease. 

Special opportunities (specify) 



Special responsibilities (specify) 



you 



Read everything as far as Table I before filling out any part of Table I. Then read again as 
need, to fill out columns 1, 3, 5, and 7. 

Consider your interest in or liking for each of the activities listed below during your early boyhood, 
8-14 years. Mark in column 1 with a 1 the activity that was at that period most interesting to you of the 
ten listed. Mark with a 2 the one that was next most interesting; mark with a 3 the one that was next in 
interest, and so on. If two or more were, so far as you can judge, equally interesting, give them the same 
mark. If any had no interest, you were indifferent to it, precede the figure with a zero; if it was distaste- 
ful, with a minus sign (as 07, -8, -9, -10). 

Record similarly under column 3 the order of interest of these ten activities when you were 14-18 years old. 

Record similarly under colunm 5 the order of interest of these ten activities when you were 18-25 years old. 

Record similarly under column 7 the order of interest of these ten activities for you now. 

Record nothing under columns 2, 4, 6, and 8 until columns 1, 3, 5, and 7 are filled. 

By Bargaining is meant swapping, trading, buying as cheap as possible, selling as dearly as possible, 
and the hke. 

By Managing people is meant bossing others, giving orders, deciding which person shall do each part of 
a game or task, persuading people to do certain things, getting people to agree, and the hke. 

By Studying with books is meant studying but not experimenting in a laboratory or learning to use 
machines or observing facts in nature. 

By Experimenting is meant doing experiments in laboratories, copying or following directions for elec- 
trical and mechanical toys, tricks or useful contrivances, trying and adapting directions for treatment of 
soil, seeds, five stock, and the like. 

By Planning and inventing is meant drawing and maldng original models of boats, engines, and the hke, 
devising useful contrivances about the house or shop, or devising new methods of doing things, but not 
routine work, or that planned and directed by others. 

By Observing facts in nature is meant learning the size, shape, color, habits, names, or other character- 
istics of wild and domestic birds and animals, trees, plants, or physiographic or geologic formations. 

By Clerical work is meant such work as arranging cards, comparing names or numbers, classifying 
written facts of name, number, date, address, and the like. 

By Mechanical work is meant carpentering, blacksmithing, cleanmg tools or machines, and the like. 

By Farm work is meant chopping, hoeing, ploughing, digging, moving stones, planting, and care of 
poultry, animals, feeding, harnessing and driving horses, and the like. 

By Athletics and organized games is meant participation m school or local field sports, team games, 
swimming, rowing, skating, and the like. 

H at any of the four periods you had no chance to tell how great your mterest was in an activity, judge 
as best you can how great your interest would have been if you had had a chance to engage m the activity. 

TABLE I. 





1 1 2 
8-14 


3 1 4 
14-18 


S 1 6 
18-25 


7 1 8 
Present 


Interest 


Ability 


Intere.l | Ability 


Interest 


Ability 


Interest 


Ability 


11 • ■ 





















































































































































T7o,.TV. T<T,->..1^ ^ 



















Athletics and organized games. . 






...'.'.'..'. 















Consider now your ability at each of the ten activities when you were 8-14. Mark in column 2 with 
a 1 the activity at which your ability was greatest — that is, the one that you did best at, or think you 
would have done best at if you had had a chance to try it. Mark with a 2 the activity at which your abil- 
ity was next greatest — that is, the one that you did next best at, or think you would have done next best at 
if you had a chance to try. Mark 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 for the others according to your memory of what 
your abilities were. If your abilities in two or more were, in so far as you can judge, equal, give them the 
same mark. , j. , .,., . ^, ... 

Record similarly imder column 4 your order ot ability m these ten activities when you were 14-18. 

Record similarly under column 6 your ability in each of these ten activities when you were 18-25. 

Record similarly under column 8 your order of ability in these ten activities at the present time. 



Read everything as far as Table II before filling out Table II. Read again and fill out Table III. 

Let the value to your subsequent life and activities of a class-room hour of a fundamental English 
course be a unit of measure, and call it 10. Estimate the comparative value (whether " practical " or 
" inspirational ") in your mmisterial life of each course taken in your college work, by a number in the 
blank space following the appropriate heading; thus: if a class-room hour of Greek has had the same value 
as an hour of English, mark it 10; if twice as valuable, 20; if less valuable, 9 or less. If any course had no 
value to your life and work as a Christian minister, mark it zero. Place no mark after courses not taken. 

In the same manner, mark the studies of your theological course with numbers indicating their value 
as compared with the same unit " 10," as in Table II. 



TABLE II. 

Name of College Year of 

or University Graduatio 



TABLE III. 



Name of Theological 
School 



Year of 
Graduation . 



EjfGLISH 



Languages . . 



History . . . 



Mathematics 



Philosophy* 



Psychology* 



Social 

Sciences* 



Voice 
and Ear 



Analysis and composition 
Literature 



Latin . . 
Greek. . 
French. 



Spanish or Italian. 



Ancient . . 
General . . 
European. 
American. 



Pure. . . 
Applied 



Biological. . , 

Physical 

Chemistry. . 

Geology 

Astronomy . 



Introduction, History. 

Logic 

Ethics* 



Descriptive. . . 
Experimental , 
Educational. . . 



Economics 

Social Theory 

Descriptive Sociology. 
Practical Sociology. . . 



Music and Singing 

Elocution, Oratory . . , 
Speaking and Debate. 



. ,„!J''t*"X of these were biken in the Theological School 
mark T after the number. 



„ Composition, Sermons , 

English t-. . 

Literature 



Languages . 



Exegesis . 



Doctrine 



Practical 
Theology . 



Comparative 
Religions . . . 



Social 
Science* 



Religious 
Education* 



Voice 
AND Ear . 



Semitic 

Greek 

Oriental (and Phonics). 



ChurclLanilnstitutions . 
Geography, Archaeology. 
Missions, Evangelism. . . 



Hebrew , 
Greek. . . 



History and Development. 

Systematic Theology 

Apologetics 



Denominational Polity and Ad- 
ministration 

Parish and Pastoral Problems. . 

Homiletics 

Praxis 



History and Phil' 

Psychology of 

Relation to Missions 



phy of . 



Social Theory 

Social Problems and Laboratory 



Educational Theory 

Educational Material 

Educational Problems and Lab 
oratory 



Music, Singing 

Elocution, Oratory . . . 
Speaking and Debate. 



•If any of these were taken 



College 



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Analysis and composition 
Literature 












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A Shidy of Theological School Graduates 41 

of their appointments held since grackiation, with the uniform 
statistics of those charges. For those whose names no longer appear 
in the General Minutes of the denomination, the fact of their having 
left the ministry, and the causes therefor when ascertainable, were 
held to be of vocational significance. 

To secure more individual and personal records, a copy of the 
accompanying questionnaire, with a letter explaining the purpose 
of the study, was sent to every accessible graduate. 

The total number of graduates of the three schools for these 
ten years, as shown by the official records of degrees or diplomas 
conferred, was 1204. Of these 35 had died. For 135 no address 
or incomplete addresses could be found, 59 others were then re- 
siding in foreign countries, and on account of the difficulties of 
mail service in war time, no letters were sent to them. Hence the 
total number of questionnaires sent was 975. Replies with answers 
were received from 310, replies stating unwillingness or inability 
to answer the questions from 13, and letters were returned un- 
claimed from the given address for 23. The 310 questionnaires 
returned more or less completely filled out thus give personal data 
concerning 26 per cent, of the entire 1199 men, and represent almost 
one third of those presumably receiving requests. 

All three of the schools included in this study now have a careful 
system of permanent records of all the grades of all the students, 
put into effect during or since the period under consideration; but 
only Boston had complete records of numerical grades for all the 
graduates for all ten years. In the other two schools, changing 
policies of grading, including, variously, percentages, a scale re- 
corded in percentages but apparently reaching from 90 to 100 in 
tenths of one per cent, "A, B, C, D, and F," "Excellent, Very Good, 
Good, Poor," and a simple "Passed or Failed," were in effect suc- 
cessively or simultaneously. In Drew, for the members of the 
classes of 1902 and most of 1903, no records of grades have been 
preserved. In the ledger of those years were two or three blank 
forms showing that it had been the custom to give each student 
a statement of his grades each term. 

Scope and Limitations. So much for a preliminary statement of 
the data at hand. "What are the standards and tests of 'success' 
in the Christian ministry? What factors of success are measurable, 
and by what scale?" These are the queries that seemed uppermost 
in the minds of the ministers questioned, and the reason assigned 



42 Success in the Christian Ministry 

for some of the refusals to reply was a general conviction that no 
just standard of "success" exists, and that the factors of "person- 
ality" are unanalyzable. 

To quote one letter: "I am a little perplexed, also, to understand 
just what your questionnaire will discover. My observation is 
that the three things which most often explain success in the min- 
istry are, (i) spiritual-mindedness, (2) personality, including (a) 
sympathy, (h) common sense, and (c) any pleasing peculiarity, 
and (3) egoistic ambition. I find none of these things indicated 
in your list. 

"I am wondering, moreover, what is to be your criterion of suc- 
cess. If 'grade' or rank with respect to denominational prominence 
I should be a little suspicious of the utility of such an inquiry." 

Criteria: Premises and Working Basis. One measure of success, 
capable of statistical handling, is the amount of salary received. 
This at once meets a storm of protest. The gist of these protests 
may be summed up as follows : 

"Men worthy of the Christian ministry are not working for 
money ; the man with greater egotism may secure the greater salary, 
while the one more successful in the real, spiritual aims of the 
ministry modestly goes on from one needy field to another,, regard- 
less of financial advancement." 

"In any given conference the number of charges and the salaries 
paid by each remain practically stationary. When in the itinerary 
system a minister is to be moved, he is not ordinarily demoted 
in salary, and unless the incumbent of a higher-salaried pastorate 
dies or is transferred to another conference, he cannot be promoted; 
so there is no alternative but to move a series of men receiving 
approximately the same salary to another charge of the same 
'grade. '^ Where for reasons of local expediency a man is trans- 
ferred from one conference to another, after the general shift one 
extra man is left standing like the lone player in 'Going to Jeru- 
salem,* and if he is not to retire from the game he must in turn be 
transferred to some other conference." 

"Those conferences in which a dearth of ministers occurs are 
in general those where the appointments offer the greatest hard- 
ships and the least salary. The ministers who go to these needy 

* One Conference statistician has preserved tables showing for a series of twenty-five 
years the actual groupings of charges by salary "grades" within which similarly "graded" 
ministers were moved about. 



A Study of Theological School Graduates 43 

fields must be those of high spiritual qualifications; but however 
great their real 'success,' the causes above enumerated act auto- 
matically to prevent recognition of growth in power and achieve- 
ment by increase in salary." 

All this is absolutely and undeniably true. But a statement of 
the problem in relative numerical terms shows that, nevertheless, 
"amount of salary received" is one of the indications of success. 
The higher salaries are in general paid by the churches larger in 
membership and hence in their actual or potential "sphere of use- 
fulness." The personnel of the ministry is changing decade by 
decade, and, at a rate perhaps increased by the itinerancy habit, 
these larger churches are ever seeking the stronger men among 
the new material. Of this new material, namely, the men "joining 
conference" year by year, only a fraction are trained in theological 
schools. If the proportion receiving the larger salaries is demonstra- 
bly larger among these men than among the total membership of 
the conferences, then one or both of two factors are operating. 
The theological training is itself a factor in achieving the larger 
salary standard, or the men who seek such training are those whose 
individual endowment tends to bring them such success. If the 
proportion of higher-salaried men is the same among theological 
graduates as among the ministry in general, an analysis of the 
differences in the individual traits of the theological graduates 
holding the highest and those holding the lowest salaried positions 
may reveal those factors which apart from special training con- 
tribute to "success." So in any case, "salary received" has a scien- 
tific value as one measure of "success in the Christian ministry." 

Another common measure of success is "prominence." Certain 
conference and denominational positions bring their incumbents 
before a wide public, denominational and general. These committee 
chairmanships, executive secretaryships, editorships, and professor- 
ships are in a wider or narrower sense elective, and selection to such 
offices and continuance therein implies "success" in the same sense as 
similar honors and recognitions in other professions. The number 
of theological graduates elected to these positions is capable of 
statistical handling. 

These two ascertainable facts, comparative salary and compar- 
ative prominence, may therefore be taken as crude criteria of "success." 

Personal and Environmental Factors Measured. What factors 
making up the individual's equipment for life are both significant 



44 Success in the Christian Ministry 

and measurable? Among such objectively reportable individual 
differences are physical make-up, conditions of early environment 
and experience, native interest and abilities, and the intellectual 
differences shown by definite reactions to identical, or sufficiently 
similar stimuli, — such as examinations or questionnaires. 

As to physical make-up, the studies of Gowin, Folsom, and others 
have shown a definite relationship between the size and vitality of 
the bodily machine and the kind and quantity of achievement. 
Time is a factor in determining the individual norm both in physical 
development and in the amount of experience and achievement; 
hence the questionnaires asked for the date of birth, and the present 
height and weight. Early environment and experience are factors in 
sympathetic ability to handle men, and in ambitions and ideals. 
The outstanding classification of such environment is. socially and 
physically, into "country," "village," or "city," and economically 
into "struggle," "comfort," or "ease." That these divisions were 
sufficiently explicit in content seems clear from comments when 
such were added. 

Thus far the answers received were practically complete. With 
the data for "individual interests and abilities," difficulties appeared. 
In selecting and describing traits for ranking, one could not expect 
ministerial patience and effort to cover more than ten, and omissions 
were bound to occur. "The things I was interested in seem largely 
omitted from your list," says one reply. "Bargaining" was perhaps 
an unfortunate caption for the trait described, as the replies indicate 
a common connotation in the clerical mind with "hard" or "sharp" 
bargaining, unfair advantage, sordidness, rather than the "economic 
sense" or "business acumen" acknowledged by some of those who 
noted "strong repugnance" to this trait as they understood it. On 
the whole, however, responses indicate that the ten traits chosen 
are common, intelligible, and sufficiently distinctive to indicate 
real personal differences in original interests and abilities. 

Then there is the double difficulty that the order of interest and 
ability at the different periods required subjective judgments, based 
on memory. There were several protests at the "difficulty of self- 
analysis," and the "unreliability of memory — it must be mere guess- 
work." Ministers have not been trained to the use of mental and 
social measurements and two misapprehensions appeared fre- 
quently: that a judgment was of no value unless accompanied by a 
high feeling of certainty, and that what was desired was absolute in- 



A Study of Theological School Graduates 45 

terest or ability instead of the relative order requested as distinctly as 
possible. Many modestly disclaimed "first-rate ability" in anything, 
others ranged all ten traits under only three or four figures of the 
scale, some used many blanks and zeros, and some frankly "gave up 
the puzzle." Hence of the 310 replies received, but 103 clearly and 
unequivocally arranged the eight columns in Table I of the ques- 
tionnaire in order of merit. 

Training Factors Measured. There was a far more spontaneous 
interest in the relative value of the subjects of their professional 
training, as shown both by the judgments recorded in Tables II and 
III of the answered questionnaires and by the supplementary 
comments and letters. Here again individuals (though fewer of them) 
were troubled by the unreliability of memory. More desired some 
means of equating separately the values of the subjects of the 
curriculum and the personalities by whom they were taught. Some 
of the constructive comments will be quoted in place. The number 
and completeness of the judgments on the vocational value of 
college and theological curriculum subjects is sufficient for deductions 
of value. 

2. A Study of the Official Records 

[An analysis of the data obtained concerning the graduates from 
Boston University School of Theology, Drew Theological Semi- 
nary, and Garrett Biblical Institute for the decade, 1902-1911.^] 

SUMMARY OF DATA OBTAINED 

The scope of the material stands out more clearly when the 
figures from the three schools are arranged in parallel columns. In 
Tables VIII and IX a fourth column shows the total for all three 
schools under each item. 

2 Except to three Boston graduates working in Mexico, and one Drew graduate in 
Cuba, no letters were sent to graduates residing in foreign countries. This omission was 
on account of the difficulty of mail service in war time. One Garrett missionary, home 
on furlough, received and filled out a questionnaire. 



46 



Success in the Christian Ministry 



TABLE VIII 
Numerical Summary of Questionnaires Sent and Replies Received 



Graduates (official records) 

Deceased 

In Foreign Countries ^ . . 
Supernumerary and Retired 
Withdrawn from Conference 
Others, address not found . 
Letters not sent .... 



Letters Sent 

Letters Returned Unclaimed 
Replies with Answers . . . 
Replies Refusing Answers . 



Boston 
393 



(i8) 
(19) 
(10) 



12 

15 

13 

9 

26 

75 

318 

9 

122 

7 



Drew 
468 



(II) 



II 

25 
10 

7 

89 

379 

7 

92 

4 



Garrett 
343 



(20) 

(17) 

(6) 



12 
19 

4 

4 

26 

65 

278 
6 

96 
2 



Total 
1204 



(63) 
(47) 
(23) 



35 
59 
27 
20 
88 
229 

975 
22 

310 
13 



The replies received were classified as to completeness as follows : 

Class I, all tables in figures . . 
Class II, all tables partly figures 
Class III, only part of tables . . . 



42 


34 


27 


103 


47 


34 


41 


122 


33 


24 


28 


85 


[22 


92 


96 


310 



2 See note, p. 45. 



A Study of Theological School Graduates 4 

TABLE IX 

Occupations of Theological School Graduates, Status of 191 7 

Boston Drew Garrett Total 

Graduates of 1902-11 living 
in 1916-17 

A. In Academic Positions . (32 
Foreign Schools .... 
Teaching when Died or 

Last Heard from . . . 

B. In Executive Positions . (11- 
Denominational and Inter- 
denominational Boards 

City Mission and Church 

Philanthropies 

Field Agent, Hospital or 

Child Care 

Anti-Saloon League . . . 

Y. M. C. A 

Foreign Diplomatic . . . 
Conference Field Sec'y- • 

C. Editor"al 

D. Not in Active Ministry 
Laymen and Women . . 
Supernumerary .... 

Located 

Retired 

Discontinued or Withdrawn 
Not in General Minutes, 

1917 

Total not Preaching . . . 
Foreign Other than Teaching 
Pastors and Dist. Sup'ts., 

U. S. A.3 281 450 234 965 

' (Including) 

Congregational 

Evangelical 

Lutheran 

M. E. Canada 

M. E. South 

Presbyterian 

Protestant Episcopal . . . 
United Evangelical .... 
Wesleyan (England) . . . 

6 20 18 





381 




457 




331 




1 163 


-I) 


31 


(29-1) 


28 


(16-1) 


15 




74 






3 


• 


5 




12 








5 




I 




10 




-2) 


9 




19 




9 




37 






7 









II 








2 




I 




5 








I 




I 




3 








I 




I 




3 








2 









3 









4 




3 




7 









I 









I 









I 




_3 




_i 









3 


3 










3 




46 




45 




58 




149 







2 




8 




10 




II 




7 




14 




32 




I 




2 




4 




7 




7 




4 




3 




14 




10 




7 




6 




23 




17 




23 




23 




^3 






86 




95 




82 




263 




14 




22 




15 




51 



3 


3 


6 


12 





I 





I 








I 


I 


I 





2 


3 


I 


6 


I 


8 


I 


3 


7 


II 





4 


I 


5 





2 





2 





I 





I 



48 Success in the Christian Ministry 



GRADES IN THEOLOGICAL SCHOOLS 



Access to this confidential material was most courteously granted 
by all three schools, and every facility provided for copying the 
records in existence for the years included in this study. Boston 
University School of Theology alone among them has preserved 
complete records of the grades accorded all students in all of the 
subjects taught during the entire ten years considered. The officials 
of the other schools deprecated the fact that the value of such rec- 
ords had not at that time been sufficiently perceived by educators 
in general to insure their preservation. Provision is now made for 
such permanent records. If the use here made of both records and 
omissions shall be of any assistance to these and other educators in 
standardizing present records for future use, it will be, perhaps, 
some slight return for the present investigator's indebtedness for 
the cordial help received. 

Boston University School of Theology. The system in use during 
the decade and continuing to the present (191 8) is a percentage 
marking, "passing" at 70. To determine the reliability of these 
marks as criteria of the relative ability of the individual students, 
all of the marks of the 392 individual students for whom records 
were obtained were arranged in "randona halves" irrespective of 
variations in elective subjects. In some few cases of students 
bringing credits from other theological schools for two or more 
years of graduate work (three full years subsequent to the Bache- 
lor's degree are required for graduation), the marks are as few as 
8 or 10. But in general, varying with the three-term or two-semester 
report system, the total number of grades recorded for each student 
was from 24 to 42. 

In each half the median grade was taken as the central tendency. 
In fact, it most often corresponded with the mode. The close cor- 
respondence between the two halves of each man's markings, both 
in range of variation and in central tendency, was so evident from 
inspection that it seemed unnecessary to calculate the reliability 
correlation before using the figures as measures. 

It was easy to find by inspection also the central tendency 
(median) of all the grades of each individual. These individual 
medians were used in determining the relative standing of each 
man among the whole number of graduates of the ten years. The 
distribution of these individual medians is given in Table X. The 



A ^fudy of Theological School Ciradiialcs 49 

same facts are shown graphically In Fig. 5, in which the markedly 
skew curve emphasizes what the figures show, namely: 

(a) A tendency on the part of those giving the grades to con- 
strict the range of differentiation between the performances of 
different students. A range of 30 steps above passing is allow^ed 
by the scale. Of these the individual medians cover 24, but 60 
per cent of their entire number are within 5 steps of this scale 
(88-92 per cent). 

ih) A tendency to over-high estimation. While the median of 
the individual medians falls upon the mode (90 per cent), that 
median is distant from the lower end of the scale 15 of the entire 
24 steps (19 steps from the passing limit) and requires 74 of the 97 
marks on the i6th step to reach the middle point. The upper half 
of the total covers but 7 steps beyond the mode (and includes but 
a quarter of the numbers falling on the mode), and those steps are 
within two of the perfection limit. 

TABLE X 
Distribution of Individual Medians. Boston University Grades 
Median Per Cent Number of Individuals 

75 I 

76 o 

77 o 

78 , 2 

79 I 

80 6 

81 5 

82 7 

83 5 

84 3 

85 18 

86 13 

11 11 Jl 

88 20 

89 24 

90 97 

91 52 

92^ 44 237 

93 22 

94 21 

95 20 

96 8 

97 4 

98 2 

99 o 

100 o 77 

392 392 



50 



Success in the Christian Ministry 



The result of these tendencies, as they affect this study, is to 
place the graduates on a dead level of high efficiency in acquiring 
the subject matter of theological training. This renders difficult 
a suitable differentiation for comparison with their subsequent 





76 


77 


76 


5i 


s 


8? 


$2 


83 


84 


85 


M 


»7 88 


fi9 2Q.fll9> 


98 


94l 


E 


H 


b. 


g 


r 






























\ 






































































































































































































































































































































































































































































*"" 


— . 


~" 






""' 






""' 


""" 






-1 
1 






■ 


1- 










^*H 


























t 




























:0 


■>PT 


n 


^Tlt 










1 








2d 


P 


sr 


cei 


lt< 


























1 
















1 






























-. 










1 




























■ 






1 




























1 






















^ 


1 








^ 




P^^^^k^^^^H^^^^^^^^^^^M^^ 


1 








2 


1 


G 


5 


7 


\' 


3 


18 


18 


1? 


20 


^9753 




83 


a 


80 


8 


4 


2 



Fig. 5, Curve Showing Distribution of IndividuaJ Medians, Boston Uni- 
versity School of Theology Grades. 1902-1911 



achievements. The quartiles run so close to the central tendency 
that the highest and lowest quintiles, as indicated in the table, 
have been used, instead, for comparison and contrast. 

Drew Theological Seminary. No records were preserved of the 
grades received by the class of 1902. Records are also missing for 
most of the class of 1903, and for an occasional individual in other 
years. The number of grades, and the proportion in letters and in 
figures, varied greatly between individual entries, even in those 



A Study of Theological School Graduates 51 

of the same page of the ledger. Three random samples of individual 
records show the difficulty of devising methods for finding a just 
figure to represent a man's relative position in scholarship. (Fig. 6.) 

Heb. Gr. Syst. Bib. Prax. N. T. Hist. Pract. 0. T. Median 
{0. T.) {N. T.) Theo. Geog. Pub. Int. &■ Theol. Theol. Int. & Chosen 

90.9 



96.8 













Sp. 


Lit. 






Lit. 


X 


V. G. 


E. 


84.8 


98 


93 


96 




94 


96 


'05 


E. 
Not P. 


E. 


95 
92.2 




96 
E. 








E. 


Y 


E. 


95 


97 


98 




100 


97 


E. 


100 


'08 




E. 


97.6 
97.2 


100 






94 


E. 
E. 


E. 


Z 


V. G. 


G. 


89 


90 


G. 


89 


88 


E. 


85 


'09 






91 




Fig. 


92 
6 


87 


V. G. 





For "random halves" an arbitrary dividing point had to be se- 
lected, anew with every differently arranged page. As far as possible 
this dividing point equalized the high-mark and low-mark subjects, 
although some individuals might have all high marks in one half 
cmd all low in the other, or have many more marks in one column 
than in the other. 

When grades were given in figures they were frequently carried 
out to tenths per cent. One man's grade might be 94.3, another's 
94.4 in the same subject; and in the face of such scrupulous care 
one felt diffident about attempting to assign values to letters! 
Fortunately in some of the subjects both letters and figures had 
been used in the same term. With due regard to this clue, and to 
the general range in the figures, the letters were assigned the fol- 
lowing values: G, 85; VG, 90; E or Ex., 95. As the proportion of 
letters to figures was pretty even, the effect on individual grades 
was fairly constant. 

The average of the grades in each column of the random halves 
corresponded closely enough with the median to serve as the central 
tendency of that column, and the arithmetical mean of these two 
was taken as the basis for calculating deviations and making com- 
parisons. These medians were generally in fractions, and the dis- 
tribution was therefore first made by tenths per cent., ranging 
from 79.7 to 99.3. These marks were readily grouped in the regular 
percentage scale by including as 80 per cent, all from 79.6 to 80.5, 



52 Success in the Christian Ministry 

as 8 1 per cent all from 80.6 to 81.5, and so on. The result of 
this was Table XI. The same facts are shown graphically in 

Fig. 7. 

Here, too, the curve skews overwhelmingly to the upper end of 
the scale. There was no way of determining the passing mark. 
No grades in figures were below 70. but no median was below 80. 
Hence this scale has but twenty steps (cf. 24 for Boston). The 
lowest quintile covers eleven of these steps, 80-91 per cent, and 
the highest quintile but four. The remaining 60 per cent are com- 
pressed within four steps. The mode and the median both fall at 
94, within five steps of the highest grades given, and only six steps 
from the perfection limit. 

The general tendencies emphasized are therefore the same as 
those pointed out in the preceding table. 



TABLE XI 
Distribution of Individual Medians. Drew Seminary Grades 



Median Per Cent. 


Number of I 


ndivid 


80 


I 




81 







82 


2 




83 


I 




84 


I 




85 


2 




86 


6 




87 


6 




88 


4 




89 


10 




90 


18 




91 


20 


71 


92 


30 




93 


55 




94 


66 




95 


61 


212 


96 


45 




97 


21 




98 


4 




99 


2 




100 





72 




355 


355 



A Study of Theological School Graduates 



53 



80 


81 


82 


83 


84 


85 


86 


87 


88 


89 


90 


91 


^93 94 95 


96 


97 


98 


99 






































































1 








































■■ 














































T* 


'"" 




















-^ 


^Zi 


)per 


, 


, 




20 


P< 


r 


jer 


t. 










t 






cen 


' * 1 


4- - 






















t 






























\ 






























1 






























1 








1 




























: 


1 


























— 
























L- 










■■ 




■u 


1 





Z 


1 


1 


2 


6 


a 


4 


10 


IS 


so 

1 


30 55 
eoteei 


66 61 
cei.t. 


.^5 

I 


21 


4 


2 



Fig. 7. Curve Showing Distribution of Individual Grades, Drew 
Theological Seminary. 1902-1911 



Garrett Biblical Institute. In this institution the records were 
complete with the exception of four individuals. The degree of 
B.D. had been given to 138 college graduates. The 205 graduating 
in the Diploma course may or may not have had part or all of a 
college course. Part of the grades were in figures and part in letters. 
The letters seemed to be used according to two systems, one a 
simple "passed" or "failed" (P and F) and the other ranging from 
P to A. With what clues were available by inspection, the following 
numerical values were assigned to the letters: F, 60; C, 75; G, 80; 
B, 85; E, 90; A, 95. As it was impossible to tell what value 
to assign P, the mark was consistently omitted. The other 
grades were sufficiently numerous to give at least a probable 
value to the measures obtained from them alone. For con- 
venience the first and second semesters were chosen for the ran- 
dom halves. 

After trying out several random samplings, it was found that 
the medians so closely approximated the arithmetical average, 
in each column and between the columns, that to save time the 



54 Success in the Christian Ministry 

average was used. The distribution of these individual medians * 
is shown in Table XII, and graphically in Fig. 8. 





TABLE XII 






NDiviDUAL Medians. 


Garrett Biblical Insti 


Median Per Cent. 


Number of Individuals 


"Pass" 






1 


I 


73 






I 




74 






2 




75 






2 




76 






3 




77 






6 




78 






5 




79 






9 




8o 






11 




8i 






13 




82*^ 






16 


68 


83 






30 




84 






21 




85 






38 




86 






33 




87 






28 




88 « 






35 


205 


89 






21 




90 






21 




91 






9 




92 






6 




93 






5 




94 






2 




95 






2 
340 


66 
340 



The number of steps is one less than that covered by the Boston 
medians and three more than the Drew scale, but the curve is 
more nearly normal. The mode falls on the middle step, and the 
median on the one above. The upper quintile includes sev^en steps 
to balance the 10 of the lower quintile, and the highest medians 
are five steps from the perfection point. This tendency to recognize 

■• The quintiles required an average of 68 names. By removing four which were 
82+ to the 83 column, the lower quintile included all of the individual medians be- 
tween 73 and 82. Removing eight marks of 89 — to the 88 column, left 66 between 
89 and 95 inclusive for the upper quintile. 

* 4 grades of 82 + counted as 83. 

« 8 grades of 89 — counted as 88. 



A Study of Theological School Graditaies 



55 



wider variations in individual performance stands out plainly as 
one traces the whole series of grades. Most of the instructors seemed 
to feel free to give the same man in the same subject grades several 
steps apart and to distribute their students over almost the whole 
range. This is a wholesome tendency and if the grades were all in 
a single system of either letters or figures, the marks would have a 
high reliability as measures. 



^ 


73 


74 


75 


76 


77 


78 


79 


80 


81 


83 


83 


84 


85 


86 


87 


88 


89 


90 


91 


)3 


93 


94 


95 






















1 




— "■" 


^~ 


"•"" 


"* — 


""T 






































.1- 


1 per 


66 


It. 


1 








































1 


■ 






t 
















1 — 


" 


"~" 


-*• 


""" 






*""" 




— 


~^l 




ll 


■ ■ 






— 


'"' 






=1 


1 


2( 


) P 


er< 


;en 


t. 
















20 


P< 


!r 


cei 


t. 




1 




































I 






















ita 












1 


















ih^^^^^^^i^H 












1 












jn 




■ - 








1 














^^ 




m 




1^ 


^ 


3- 


a 


3 


6 


5 


9 


n 


13 


IG 


30 


2l| 381331 


38 


35 


^l|2l 


9| 


6 


5 


2 


3 



Fig. 8. Curve Showing Distribution of Individual Medians. Garrett 
Biblical Institute. 1902-1911 



Professional and Geographical Distribution of Theological 
School Graduates 

What are the graduates doing? The avowed purpose of the theo- 
logical schools is to train men for the Christian ministry, and the 
"ministry" is generally interpreted as signifying pulpit and pastoral 
work. The analysis of present occupations of graduates (Table IX) 
shows that 965 of the living graduates are in regular ministerial 
work. But this table also shows a relatively small but well defined 
group of 114 men who were or had been distributed among occupa- 
tions connecting with the "ministry" only by religious purpose or 
denominational organization. As to professional or vocational 
import, they are allied with teaching, journalism, social and busi- 
ness executive work. 

Another differentiation may be made in regard to the 63 workers 
in foreign fields. While the Minutes give their appointment both 
to pastoral and evangelistic duties, and to the professions just 



56 Success in the Christian Ministry 

named, one at all familiar with the actual work of such men realizes 
that there is a certain pioneering initiative and adaptability de- 
manded, by conditions not capable of such "standardizing" as pre- 
vails in ministerial work in the home country. 

Who are the men who leave the pastorate? It is evident from 
the study of the individual cases that many of these men go direct 
from the theological school into these non-pastoral vocations. Is 
the vocational training offered by the theological school adapted 
to such specializations? Are there any special tendencies in the 
men drawn into these other occupations which might be discovered 
in time to deflect them to more specialized preparation, either by 
extending the range of electives in these schools or by suggesting 
other professional schools? 

A comparison of the median grades of the individuals of these 
graduates with the distribution of the median of the schools as a 
whole is interesting. (See Tables XIII to XVI.) While the data 
at hand show many gaps, certain trends or tendencies do stand out. 
The limitations in determining the precise scholarship ranking, 
the lack of record marks of some of the specially prominent men, 
and the inaccessibility of figures recording the income of any of 
the "graduates except those in the pastorate or district superin- 
tendency of the Methodist Episcopal Church all tend to make 
deductions more or less general. Nevertheless the partial answers 
are interesting. 

Grades of Educational Men. Of the group of College, University, 
and Theological School Presidents, Vice-Presidents and Deans, 
records of fourteen have been preserved. Just one has a grade less 
than the median of all the graduates and that comes in the low^est 
fifth. The grades of two others fall on the median. Of the eleven 
above the median six are in the highest fifth of all the graduates. 
(See Fig. 9.) 

Among the College and University Professors one has no record, 
two fall below the median, three on the median, and of the twenty 
above the median, ten are within the upper fifth. 

Of the Theological School Professors, three have no records, 
none are below the median, three are on the median and of the ten 
above the median, seven are in the highest fifth. 



A Study of Theological School Graduates 



57 



TABLE XIII 
Boston Graduates, 1902-1911, in Educational (Academic) Work 

Indiv. Deviation from Position 

Median Grade 

1 +8 President Theological School 

2 +8 Professor Theological School 

3 +7 College Professor 

4 +6 Professor Theological School 

5 +6 University Professor 

6 +6 University Professor 

7 +5 Professor Theological School 

8 +4 University Professor 

9 -f- 4 Director American College (Foreign) 

10 +3 College President 

11 +3 Professor Theological School 

12 +3 University Professor 

13 +2 University Professor 

14 +2 Dean Theological School 

15 +2 College Professor at time of death 

16 +2 Professor Theological School (Foreign) 

17 +2 College Professor 

18 +2 Professor State Normal School (College) 

19 +2 Chancellor University 

20 +1 College President 

21 +1 College President 

22 +1 University Professor 

23 +1 Principal Secondary School 

24 +1 Teacher Secondary School (Foreign) 

25 o College President 

26 o Dean of College 

27 o Professor Theological School (Foreign) 

28 o Professor Theological School 

29 o College Professor 

30 o College Professor 

31 — I College Professor 

32 — 5 "Teaching when last heard from" 



Deceased 

Retired 

Not on Present Records 

Incomplete or Uncertain 

Address 
Foreign Countries 



Summary 

I College, University or Theological School 

1 Directors, Chancellors or Presidents 7 

2 Secondary School Principals 3 
College or Graduate School Deans 2 

3 College or University Professors 13 

4 Theological School Professors 7 
Not Known i 



58 



Success in the Christian Ministry 







TABLE XIV 


Drew Seminary Graduates, 1902- 191 i, in Educational (Academic) Wori 


Indiv. 


Deviation from 
Median Grade 


Position 


I 


No record 


College President (foreign) 


2 


No record 


College President 


3 


No record 


College President 


4 


No record 


College Professor 


5 


No record 


Professor Theological School 


6 


No record 


Professor Theological School 


7 


No record 


Professor Theological School 


8 


No record 


President Secondary School 


9 


No record 


Sup't. Secondary School (foreign) 


10 


+ 3 


College President 


II 


+ 3 


Professor Theological School 


12 


+ 3 


University Professor 


13 


+ 3 


University Professor 


14 


+ 2 


University Professor 


15 


+ 2 


Professor Secondary School (not known) 


16 


+ I 


College President 


17 


+ I 


President Secondary School 


18 


+ I 


Professor Theological School 


19 


+ I 


Professor Theological School 


20 


+ I 


University Professor (foreign) 


21 


+ I 


College Professor 


22 


+ I 


"Teaching, not known" 


23 





University Professor 


24 





Professor Theological School (died) 


25 


— I 


College Professor 


26 


— I 


Professor Secondary School 


27 


— I 


Professor Secondary School (not known) 


28 


- 3 


College President 


29 


- 6 


President Secondary School 
Summary 


Deceased 




I College or University Presidents 6 


Not on Present Records 


4 Secondary School Principals 4 


Incomplete 


Address 


2 College and University Professors 8 


Foreign Countries 


3 Theological School Professors 7 






Secondary School Teacher i 






Not known 3 



A Study of Theological School Graduates 



59 









TABLE XV 


Garrett Biblical Institute Graduates, 1902-1911, in Educational 








(Academic) Work 




Deviation from 




Indiv. 


Median Grade 


Position 


I 




+ 7 


Vice-President College 


2 




+ 5 


University President 


3 




+ 5 


Professor Theological School 


4 




+ 5 


Professor Theological School 


5 




+ 5 


University Professor 


6 




+ 4 


College Professor 


7 




+ 4 


Principal Secondary School (foreign) 


8 




+ 4 


"Teacher" 


9 




+ 3 


College Professor 


10 




+ I 


College Professor (foreign) 


II 




+ I 


College Professor 


12 




+ I 


College Professor (not known) 


13 




— I 


Principal Secondary School (foreign) 


14 




— I 


Principal Secondary School (foreign) 


15 




- 3 


Sup't. Preparatory School (foreign) 


16 




- 7 


Pres. Secondary Bible School (foreign) 
Summary 


Not on Present Records 


I College & University Pres. & Vice-Pres. 


Leave of Absence 




I Secondary and Training School Principals 


Foreign Countries 




5 Not Known 



College apd University Professors 
Theological School Professors 



TABLE XVI 

Summary of Graduates in Academic Positions 

Educational Boston Drew Garrett Total 
College, Univ., Theolog. School 

Pres., Vice-Pres. and Deans 9 (i for.) 6 (i for.) 2 17 (2 for.) 

College and Univ. Professors .13 8(1 for.) 5 26 (i for.) 

Theol. School Professors ... 7 (2 for.) 7 2 16 (2 for.) 
Secondary and Training School 

Principals 2 4 (i for.) 5 (5 for.) 11 (6 for.) 

Secondary School Teachers . i o i 
Not Known 1326 

Totals 32 29 16 77 

Deceased i i o 2 

Retired i o o i 

Not on Present Records ... 2 4 3 9 
Incomplete or Uncertain Ad- 
dress 3 2 I 6 

Foreign Countries 4 3 5 12 



6o Success in the Christian Ministry 

Presidents 



College and University Professors No record 



No record 


3, 


+8, 


+ 7. 


+ 5, 


+4, 


+3. 


+3, 


+ 2, 


+ 2, 


+ 1, 


+ 1, 


+ 1. 


o, 


o, 


-3- 






No rec^ord 


I, 


+ 7, 


+6, +6, 


+5, 


+4. 




+4, 


+3, 


+3, +3, 


+3, 


+ 2, 




+ 2, 


+ 2, 


+ 2, +2, 


+ 1. 


+ 1, 




+1, 


+ 1, 


+ 1, 0, 


(), 


o. 




— I, 


-I. 









Theological School Professors No record 3, +8, 4-6, +5, +5, 

+5, +3. +3, +2, +1, +1, 

o, o, o. 

Secondary and Training School 

Principals and Teachers No record 2, +4, +1, +1, +1 

-I, -I, -I, -3, -6, -7' 

Not Known +4, +2, +1, +1, — i, —5. 

Fig. 9. Summary of Grades of Educators. (Variations from Medians of Own 

School.) 



Of the Secondary and Training School Principals and Teachers.. 
two have no records. Of the six below the median, three are in the 
lowest fifth of all the grades, and none falls on the median. Of the 
four above the median, only one is in the highest fifth. 

Six individuals whose present work is not known were teaching 
when last heard from. One of these is recorded as a college professor 
and two as secondary school teachers; the others simply as "teach- 
ing." Their grades are, two below the median and four above, with 
one each in the lowest and highest fifths. 

A study of the negative deviations is of interest. Of the entire 
68 whose records are preserved only 11, or 16 per cent, are below 
the median grade of the entire number of graduates. Six of the 11 
are only one step below. Of the remaining five, one has been lost 
track of. Two are superintendents of foreign training schools, 
and, as has been suggested, the necessity of manning work that has 
been commenced compels missionaries to attempt many kinds of 
work that they would not otherwise choose. 



A Study of Theological School Graduates 6l 

TABLE XVII 

Boston Graduates, 1902-1911, in Executive Work 

Indiv. Deviation from Position 

Median Grade 

1 +5 Sup't. Deaconess Home (died) 

2 +4 Sup't. City Mission Society 

3 +4 Sup't. Deaconess Home (died) 

4 +2 Secretary State Board of Charities 

5 +2 Anti-Saloon League 

6 o Sec'y. State Children's Society 

7 o Dep't. Sup't. Denominational Board 

8 o Field Sec'y, Denominational Board 

9 — I Field Sec'y. Denominational Board 

10 — 4 Sup't, City Mission Society 

11 — 6 Field Sec'y, State Sunday School Ass'n. 







TABLE XVIII 


] 


[)rew Seminary Graduates, 1902-1911, in Executive \ 


idiv. 


Deviation from 


Position 




Median Grade 




I 


— 


Interdenominational Board 


2 


— 


Editor Denominational Publication 


3 


— 


Ass't, Ed, Interdenominational Pub, 


4 


+ 4 


Editor Denominational Publication 


5 


+ 4 


Denominational Board 


6 


+ 3 


Anti-Tuberculosis Ass'n. 


7 


+ 2 


Denominational Board 


8 


+ 2 


Fiscal Agent Hospital 


9 


+ I 


Denominational Board 


10 


+ I 


Anti-Saloon League 


II 


+ I 


City Federation of Churches 


12 


+ I 


Interdenominational Board 


13 


+ I 


Conference Field Secretary 


14 


+ I 


Y, M. C. A. 


15 





Y. M. C. A. 


16 





Denominational Board 


17 


— I 


Foreign Diplomatic Service 


18 


— I 


Denominational Board 


19 


— 2 


Y. M. C. A. 


20 


— 2 


Y. M, C, A, 


21 


— 2 


Anti-Saloon League 


22 


— 3 


Sup't. City Mission Society 



62 Success in the Christian Ministry 







TABLE XIX 


Gar 


RETT Biblical Institute, 1902-1911, in Executive Work 


Indiv. 


Deviation from 
Median Grade 


Position 


I 


+ 5 


Y. M. C. A. 


2 


+ 4 


Conference Field Secretary 


3 


+ 3 


Field Secretary for Hospital 


4 


+ 2 


Y. M. C. A. 


5 


+ I 


Y. M. C. A. 


6 


— I 


Conference Field Secretary 


7 


— I 


Editor Mission Press (Foreign) 


8 


- 3 


Conference Field Secretary 


9 


- 4 


International Sunday School Ass'n. (foreign) 


10 


- 4 


Sup't. City Philanthropy 


For Summary of Executive Positions see Table IX. 



Grades of Executives. First looking at this group as a whole, the 
distribution of grades is as follows: lowest one-fifth, 6; others below 
the median, 8; on the median, 5; above the median, 11; besides 10 
in the highest fifth. That is, of the 40 records, 25 per cent instead 
of 20 per cent were in the highest fifth of scholarship, and 15 per 
cent instead of 20 per cent in the lowest fifth, while the distribution 
of the remaining 60 per cent is about equal to that among the rest 
of their classmates. 

The denominational and interdenominational boards and in- 
stitutions range all the way from field secretaries of the Boards of 
Sunday Schools or Foreign Missions to Superintendent of a Deacon- 
ess Home or Fiscal Agent of a hospital (see Table IX). There are 
records of the theological school grades of 19 of the 20 people thus 

Denominational and Interdenomin- 
ational Boards and Institutions No record i, 4-5, 4-4, 4-4, 4-4, 

4-3, 4-2, 4-2, 4-1, 4-1, 4-1. 

o, O, O, —I, —I, —I, 

-3, -4, -6. 
City and State Social and Philan- 
thropic Organizations 4-4, 4-3, 4-2, 4-2, 4-1, 4-1, o, 

-2, -3, -4, -4. 

Y. M. C. A. +5, 4-2, +1, 4-1, o, -2, -2. 

Editors No record 2, —4, — i. 

Foreign Diplomatic Service — i. 

Fig. 10. Summary of Grades of Executives 



A Study of Theological School Graduates 63 

engaged. Six of them fall below the median and 3 of these are in 
the lowest fifth of all the grades. Three are on the median and 10 
above. Of these, 6 are in the highest fifth in scholarship. 

The organizations listed as social and philanthropic include City 
Missionary Society, State Charitable Associations, National Anti- 
Tuberculosis Association, State and National Anti-Saloon League 
and others (See Table IX). Of the 1 1 men thus engaged, 4 had grades 
below the median, one on the median, and 6 above. Three are in 
the lowest fifth and 2 in the highest. 

The remaining individuals classified as executives include 7 in 
various phases of Y.M.C.A. work, 4 editors and one Chinese gentle- 
man who was, at last accounts, Assistant Secretary of Foreign 
Affairs in a former governmental cabinet. For two of this group, 
there are no records. Four are below the median, one on the median 
and 5 above. None are in the lowest fifth and two are in the highest. 

There are too few cases to justify any conclusions as to the dis- 
tribution, as regards scholarship, between the denominational and 
other executive interests. 



Indiv. 









TABLE XX 


Graduates, 


, 1902- 


1911, 


IN Foreign Missionary 


Deviation f 


rom 




Country 




Median Grade 




I 




+ 5 




India 


2 




+ 4 




Chile (Educational) 


3 




+ 3 




Java 


4 




+ 2 




China 


5 




+ 2 




China (Educational) 


6 




+ 2 




Mexico 


7 




+ I 




Africa (Educational) 


8 









Singapore 


9 









India (Educational) 


10 









Korea 


II 
12 

13 
14 
15 






- I 
-3 

- 5 

- 5 




Mexico 

China 

Mexico 

Japan 

China 


16 




- 7 




Japan 


17 




— 10 




Philippines 


18 




— 11 




Sweden (not known) 



64 Success in the Christian Ministry 

Grades of Missionaries. Of the 63 men in foreign service, 9 have 
no records. Eight grades are on the median, with 23 above and 23 
below. Of those whose grades are recorded one-fifth would be eleven ; 
16 are in the lowest one-fifth and 9 in the highest. 







TABLE 


XXI 


rARY 


Graduates, i 


; 902-191: 


[, IN Foreign Missio 


ndiv. 


Deviation from 


Country 




Median Grade 




I 


— 




China (Educational) 


2 


— 




Argentina 


3 


— 




Japan 


4 


— 




China (Educational) 


5 


— 




Maylasia 


6 


— 




India 


7 


— 




Korea 


8 


— 




Newfoundland 


9 


+ 2 




China 


10 


+ 2 




England 


II 


+ I 




Russia 


12 


+ I 




Cuba 


13 


+ I 




China (Educational) 


14 


+ I 




Japan 


15 


+ I 




China 


16 


+ I 




Japan 


17 







Korea 


18 







Africa 


19 


— I 




China (Diplomatic) 


20 


— I 




England 


21 


- 3 




Argentina 


22 


- 3 




Syria 


23 


- 4 




France 


24 


- 4 




Japan 


25 


- 8 




Japan 



Inspection of Tables XX-XXII and Fig. 11 shows that the 
negative deviations are very large. In general the men with the 
lowest grades in educational w^ork are found in the missionary 
schools. This suggests that exigency rather than voluntary 
choice has given them these positions. This is borne out by the 
fact that most of the missionaries in educational w^ork have also 
executive and evangelistic duties. 

Deductions from Data of "Other Occupations." Is anything surely 
to be concluded from the data just summarized? The numbers are 



A Study of Theological School Graduates 65 





TABLE XXII 


TUTE Graduates, 1902-1911, in Foreign 




Service 


Deviation from 


Country 


Median Grade 




— 




Korea 


+ 6 




Korea 


+ 5 




Japan 


+ 4 




India 


+ 4 




Philippine Islands 


+ 3 




India 


+ 2 




India 


+ 2 




India 


+ I 




India (Educational) 







Korea 







Africa 


- I 




Africa (Educational) 


— I 




Chile 


— I 




India (Educational) 


— 2 




Philippines 


- 3 




Japan (Not in Minutes) 


- 3 




India (Educational) 


- 4 




Uruguay 


- 5 




China (Not in Minutes) 


- 7 




Chile (Educational) 



Indiv. 

I 
2 
3 
4 
5 
6 

7 
8 

9 
10 
II 
12 
13 
14 
15 
16 

17 
18 

19 
20 

too few, too many grades are missing, and the figures chosen to 
represent each individual's scholarship contain too many elements 
of uncertainty to answer unqualifiedly. But certain tendencies do 
show very plainly. 

1. The men with the highest rank in the theological schools tend 
to enter educational work. Of those at the head of educational 
institutions of college or graduate rank, as far as we have records, 
43 per cent stood in the highest 20 per cent in scholarship. The 
professors in colleges and universities have 40 per cent of their 
number in this quintile. Of the theological professors for whom we 
have records, 54 per cent are in this highest rank. 

2. The secondary and training school principals and teachers are 
as a whole distinctly of a different type. Only 10 per cent are in 
the highest 20 per cent; while six of the 10 individuals are below 
the median and 30 per cent are in the lowest fifth. 

3. While somewhat more than a proportionate number of the men 
in executive and social positions are of high scholarship rank, that 



66 Success in the Christian Ministry 

trait does not seem to be a controlling factor in their choice of such 
work. 

4. The correlation of high scholarship with choice of the mission- 
ary field would seem to be slightly negative, as far as the present 
figures show. 
No Record 9 



Highest Fifth 


+6, 


+5, 


+5. 


+4, 


+4, 


+4, 


+3, 




+2, 


+2. 












Others above Medians 


+3, 


+2, 


+2. 


+2, 


+2, 


+2, 


+ 1, 




+ 1, 


+ 1, 


+ 1, 


+ 1, 


+ 1, 


+ 1, 


+ 1. 


On Medians 


0, 0, 


0, 


0, 


0. 


0, 


0, 


0. 


Below Medians (besides) 


— I, 


— I, 


— I, 


-I, 


— I, 


-I, 


— 2. 


Lowest Fifth 


-3, 


-3, 


-3. 


-3. 


-3. 


-4. 


-4. 




-4» 


-5. 


-5. 


~5. 


~"7) 


~7> 


-8, 




— 10, 


— II. 













Fig. II. Summary of Grades of Missionaries 

In this connection an observation of Professor HoUingworth is 
worth quoting: "One who does anything well could have done al- 
most anything else well if he had cared to try. But the degree to 
which one cares is not measured by reaction-time or cancellation 
tests." While we must pay due attention to the "overwhelming 
importance of incentive, motive, attitude and purpose and the 
large part they play in determining the possible achievements of a 
nervous system," yet the actual achievements of a nervous system 
give some indication of its possibilities. One man whose grades in 
the first term each of Hebrew and Greek were between 40 and 50 per 
cent gave up those studies and graduated in an English diploma 
course — then went as a missionary to China! He is not now in the 
Minutes nor was any further record obtainable. 

Grades of Seminary Men and Ability in Four Traits. In the 
membership of the two conferences studied in Part I were fifty-six 
men who had graduated from Drew Theological Seminary during 
the decade under consideration. Some of these had no records of 
scholarship grades, and some others had been rated by fewer than 
four judges. Omitting these left a group of thirty-nine Drew 
graduates whose seminary grades were available and whose abilities 
in the four ministerial traits had been estimated by four or more 
judges. Proceeding in the usual manner of cross-correlating the 
random halves of the deviations of each man's grades (from the 
central tendency of the entire group of graduates) with the a and b 



A Study of Theological School Graduates 67 

columns of his deviations in the four traits (from the central tendency 
3) and finding the self-correlations of this group in both grades and 
traits (to correct for attenuation), we have the following results: 

Sermon Ability and Theological Grades + .079 

Pastoral Ability and Theological Grades +44 

Executive Ability and Theological Grades -f- ,43 

Evangelistic Ability and Theological Grades + .077 

The probable errors in the ratios are so large that conclusions 
must wait until a larger number of cases can be studied. 

RELATION OF THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL GRADES TO 
OCCUPATION AND INCOME 

Another way of getting at the relation between scholarship and 
occupation is to see what the highest one-fifth and lowest one-fifth 
of the graduates are actually doing and, as far as possible, what 
their income is. Tables XXIII and XXIV give this information in 
summarized form. 

By comparing Table IX with Table XXIII we see that 965 of the 
1163 living graduates are in the pastorate. The normal distribution 
would put 40 per cent of these in the highest and lowest quintiles of 
scholarship. There are, including district superintendents, 279, 
which is barely 29 per cent. On the other hand, 62 of the entire 
number of graduates were in academic positions in the United States 
and 21, or more than one-third of them, wxre in the highest quintile; 
while only two, or a little more than 3 per cent, were in the lowest 
20 per cent in scholarship. 

In the entire number of graduates there were 40 men in executive 
and editorial positions. Of these, the 9 in the highest fifth form only a 
fraction more than 20 per cent, and the 5 in the lowest fifth a larger 
fraction less. Of the total of 149 graduates entirely out of the minis- 
try or related work, fewer than 1 1 per cent are from the highest fifth 
and 29 per cent are in the lowest fifth. So while the highest and 
lowest grades together have their normal share of withdrawals, 
those having the lowest grades tend to withdraw from the work for 
which they took their training about three times as frequently as 
those in the highest rank. 

The number of women is so small that no conclusions can be 
drawn. It is, however, interesting to note that the entire number 
of women graduating during the decade was nine. Of these, 8 
were in the highest quintile, one in the lowest and none in the 
middle or average section. Their occupations were: 



68 Success in the Christian Ministry 

"Congregational Church" (Pastor ?) i 

Pastor's Assistant i 

Pastor's Wife 2 (3 ?) 

Superintendent, Deaconess Home 2 (deceased) 

No Record 3 

For the last three, the records gave post office addresses only. 
Questionnaires were addressed to them but one was returned un- 
delivered, and another was returned with the reply that as she 
"had not the honor to be either a man or a minister" her data could 
be of no value. 

TABLE XXIII 

All Seminary Grades. Highest and Lowest Fifths 

Boston Drew Garrett Total 

Status of igiy 98-93 75-86 99-96 80-91 95-89 73-82 

H I /5 L I /5 H I /5 L I /5 H I /5 L i /s H i /s L i /5 

Deceased . . . 3(2w) 13 03 2 9 3 

Lost Track of o 8 4(2t) 11 5(2w) 12 9 31 

No Address but 
in Other De- 
nomination .2 01 21 o 4 2 

Leave of Absence i 10 00 o i i 

Supenumerary .3 21 14 i 8 4 

Located or Re- 
tired ....o 31 21 3 2 8 

Discontinued or 

Withdrawn .4 10 10 i 4 3 

"Laymen" . . . o 01 o i(w) i 2(iw) i 

Teaching or School 

Executive U.S. 10 o 5(2L) 26 o 21 2 

Editing ....o 01 00 o i o 

Executive and So- 
cial (incl. Y. 
M.C. A.) . . 2 24 12 2 8 5 

Chaplain . . . i 20 00 o i 2 

Foreign (Pastor- 
al and Teach- 
ing) .... 4 44 33 5(2L) II I2(2L) 

Dist.Sup't. (U.S.) 2 II II I 4 3 

Pastorate, U. S. 45(iw) 53 48 47 39(2w) 4o(iw) I32(3w) i4o(nv) 

(Wife, Assistant) 

Conference Evan- 
gelist ....o 00 00 2 o 2 

Women (included 

above) ... 3 _2 _2 2. Jl _L 5 I 

Total ... .77 ih 72 71 66 68 215 217 

Replies Received26-i 19-1 16 12 22-1 14 60-2 35-1 



A Study of Theological School Graduates 



Out of the Ministry 
{Permanently and Voluntarily) 

H I /5 L I /5 

Lost Track of 9 

Located or Retired . . 2 

Withdrawn 4 

Layman or Business . . 2 



69 



Other Professions 
{Denominational Connection) 

H I /5 L I /5 

Educators 21 2 

Editor I o 

Executive and Social . 8 5 

30 7 



16 



43 



TABLE XXIV 
Salaries of Graduates Receiving Highest and Lowest Grades 



Amount of 


Highest One- Fifth 






Lowest One- Fifth 




Salary in 


Boston 


Drew 


Garrett 


Total 


Boston 


Drew 


Garrett 


Tot 


IQ17 Min. 


98-93 


99-96 


95-89 




75-87 


80-91 


73-82 






% 


% 


% 




% 


% 


% 




To $599 












I 


2 


3 


600 + 










I 


I 


I 


3 


800 -f 


3 


2 




5 


2 


3 


I 


6 


900 + 










4 


3 


4 


II 


1000 + 


I 


2 


I 


4 


4 


4 


5 


13 


1100 + 


I 


2 


I 


4 




7 


6 


13 


1200 + 


2 


I 


2 


5 


8 


5 


I 


14 


1300 + 


2 


2 


2 


6 


3 


3 


3 


9 


1400 + 


I 


6 


4 


II 


3 


3 


3 


9 


1500 + 


4 


5 


2 


II 


4 


4 


2 


10 


1600 + 


3 


2 


4 


• 9 


2 


3 


2 


7 


1700+ 


3 


3 


2 


7 






I 


I 


1800 + 


I 


3 


3 


7 


2 


3 


3 


8 


1900 + 


3 


2 




5 


2 


2 


4 


8 


2000 + 


3 


4 


I 


8 


5 






5 


2100 + 


5 


I 


5 


II 


3 


I 




4 


2200 + 


2 


3 


I 


6 










2300 + 


I 


I 


I 


3 






I 


2 


2400 -f- 












I 




2 


2500 + 




I 


I 


2 


3 






3 


2600 + 


2 


I 


I 


4 








I 


2700 + 












I 




2 


2800 + 
















I 


2900 + 


I 






I 










3000 


5 


2 


4 


II 




I 


I 


3 


3500 + 


3 




I 


4 








I 


4000 + 




2 


I 


3^ 










No Record of 


















Amount : 


















Missionaries . 


4 


4 


3 


II 


5 


3 


5 


13 


Professions , 


12 


10 


8 


30 




3 


2 


5 


All Others . . 


15 


13 


19 


47 


18 


19 


21 


58 



70 



Success in the Christian Ministry 



Table XXIV shows general trends by another method. The 
salaries of all of the men in the pastorate or district superintendency 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church are printed annually in the 
General Minutes of the Denomination. For those pastors in the 
highest and lowest fifths of scholarship rank the figures of the 19 17 
Minutes were taken. The salaries of these men seem to fall natu- 
rally into six groups (each inclusive): $1,000 and under; $1,100 
to $1,500; $1,600 to $1,900; $2,000 to $2,400; $2,500 to $2,900; 
and $3,000 or more. Fig. 12 shows the trend of the two scholarship 
groups simplified to this coarser measure. 



Less $1100|l60098000|2500f3000 

Shan - . - - and 
1000 1500 1900 8400 2900 more 



Leas |1100$1600|2000$2500$3000 
than - « • . and 
$1000 1600 1900 2400 S900 more 




10 38 28 28 7 

Highest One-fifth 

Fig. 12. Distribution of Salaries Received by Highest and Lowest Fifths 
in Scholarships. 



There is, of course, much overlapping; but even in the graphs 
of the schools taken separately a distinct trend is shown, and it 
emerges much more clearly in the totals. The mode of the highest 
quintile occurs between $1,400 and $1,600, with none receiving 
a salary below $800 and a group of 18 receiving a salary of $3,000 
or more. In the lowest one-fifth in scholarship, three men receive 
a salary below $600; the mode is between $1,000 and $1,200 with 
only four receiving salaries above $3,000. None of this lower group 
received salaries of $4,000 or more, while three such salaries were 
paid to men in the highest group. 

It is interesting to note Rice's results on "School Standings and 



A Study of Theological School Graduates 71 

Salaries in Later Life." He found the coefficient between the two 
to be 

(Pearson) r = -{- .267 

(Unlike Signs) r = + .277 

He divided his group according to scholarship into quartiles in- 
stead of quintiles. Calling the average salary of the first quartile 
100 per cent, he found that the average of the second quartile was 
87 per cent, of the third, 85 per cent, and of the fourth, 76 per cent. 
For reasons previously stated, the present study uses quintiles 
instead of quartiles. On that basis, calling the average salary of 
the first quintile 100 per cent, that of the fifth or last quintile 
would be 76 per cent. 

The above data are for 268 individuals from contrasted quin- 
tiles. For 164 others no salary data were obtainable. Of these 
164, 24 were on the foreign field, 35 were in professions, and 105 
were among those retired, supernumerary, withdrawn, in lay occu- 
pations, or entirely lost track of. If the prominence criterion were 
to be applied, there would be something of a redistribution betw^een 
those about whose salaries information w^as or w^as not obtainable. 
As a large proportion of the upper quintile men, whose salaries 
were not given, were college, university, and theological school 
presidents and professors, or prominent in social or executive work, 
the salary curve would, however, probably be but little altered from 
the direction in the cases quoted in Table XXIV. 

In so far as salary received and general prominence measure 
the scope of an individual's influence and usefulness, it seems fair 
to conclude that there is a direct correspondence between an indi- 
vidual's scholarship grades during his theological course and his 
success in later life. There is evidently more than a chance rela- 
tionship between low scholarship and withdrawal from the work 
of the ministry. The fact that they were "lost track of" precluded 
any possibility of ascertaining the reasons for the withdrawal of 
most of such cases. Absolute certainty in conclusions would require 
the knowledge of these reasons, and the study of an even larger 
number of cases would be desirable. But it seems a warrantable 
inference either that these men had chosen the wrong profession, 
or that some other influence, such as poor health, low vitality, or 
a lower grade of general ability, affected their achievement both 
in scholarship and in their later work. 



72 A Success in the Christian Ministry 

3. Analysis of Data Obtained from Questionnaires 

The most authoritative source of information regarding the 
graduates of the theological schools is that obtained from the 

TABLE XXV 
Physical Data from Ministers Sending Replies to Questionnaires 



Age at 
Grad. 


















Proportion 




No. 


Height 


A^o. 


Weight 


No. 


Weight 


No. 


of Weight 
















(Cont.) (Cont.) 


to Height 


No 


23 


3 


4' 


6" 


I 


108 


I 


163 


2 


17 


I 


24 


10 


5' 


0" 





116 


I 


164 


2 


18 


5 


25 


10 


5' 


3" 


2 


120 


2 


165 


24 


19 


24 


26 


26 


5' 


4" 


II 


125 


9 


166 


2 


20 


27 


27 


32 


5' 


5" 


8 


126 


I 


167 


4 


21 


34 


28 


33 


5' 


6" 


24 


128 


3 


168 


4 


22 


28 


29 


22 


5' 


1" 


41 


130 


10 


170 


15 


23 


46 


30 


35 


5' 


8" 


57 


132 


4 


173 


I 


24 


35 


31 


22 


5' 


9" 


47 


134 


2 


174 


I 


25 


24 


32 


22 


5' 


10" 


45 


135 


12 


175 


12 


26 


28 


33 


15 


5' 


11" 


28 


136 


3 


176 


I 


27 


10 


34 


13 


6' 


0" 


29 


137 


I 


178 


2 


28 


5 


35 


17 


6' 


i" 


8 


138 


3 


180 


15 


29 


5 


36 


6 


6' 


2" 


8 


140 


10 


182 


2 


30 


16 


37 


9 


6' 


3" 


2 


141 


I 


183 


I 


31 





38 


6 


6' 


4" 


I 


142 


I 


185 


12 


32 




39 


4 


6' 


5" 


I 


143 


5 


186 


2 


33 




40 


2 


Av. 5' 


8.9" 


313 


H5 


16 


190 


4 


34 




41 


3 








146 


I 


191 


I 


37 




42 


3 








147 


2 


192 


2 


42 




43 


2 








148 


4 


195 


3 


— 




44 


I 








150 


18 


196 


2 


23* 


292 


45 


I 








151 


I 


198 


I 






51 


I 








152 


3 


200 


5 






— 










154 


2 


205 


2 






30* 


298 








155 
156 
158 
160 
161 
162 


13 

I 

5 
23 

4 


210 
212 

215 
220 
225 
240 
306 


3 
2 
2 

3 
2 

I 






*Both median and mode. 






Av. 


161. 5 


298 







graduates themselves. Questionnaires similar to the sample already 
given were sent to 975 men graduated from these theological 
schools and replies were received as follows: 



>ston 


Drew 


Garrett 


Tota 


42 


34 


27 


103 


47 


34 


41 


122 


33 


24 


28 


85 



yl ^/z^c^j 0/ Theological School Graduates 73 



Class I (All tables in figures) . 
Class II (All tables, part in figs.) 
Class III (Only part of tables) . 

Total 122 92 96 310 



PERSONAL AND SOCIAL DESCRIPTION 

Most of the 310 answered the questions relating to age, weight, 
height, and early environment, so that we have for about 300 men 
who graduated from Methodist Episcopal theological schools during 
the years 1902-1911, a picture, more or less representative of the 
ministry as a whole, of the physical type of men at present active 
in the Christian ministry, and of the physical environment which 
nurtured them. Table XXV gives the age at graduation, height, 
weight, and proportion of weight to height, of all the men who 
entered these items on their replies. 

TABLE XXVI 

A. Boyhood Environment 

City 48 

Village 62 

Country 140 

Country and Village 27 

Country and City 7 

Village and City 11 

Village, City, and Country 14 

Not given 5 

B. Economic Environment 

Struggle 133 

Comfort 130 

Ease 2 

Partly struggle, Partly comfort 40 

C. Combination of Community and Economic Factors 

City and Struggle 17 

City and Comfort 26 

Village and Struggle 23 

Village and Comfort 35 

Country and Struggle 70 

Country and Comfort 58 



74 Success in the Christian Ministry 

Physically this group of ministers varies from a height of four 
feet six inches to one of six feet five inches. More of the men are 
about five feet eight or nine inches than any other height and more 
of them weigh i6o pounds than any other weight. Their weight- 
height ranges from 17 to 42 with the mode and the median both 
falling at 23. It is interesting to compare these figures with Gowin's 
figures for executives in various occupations and the average height 
and weight of policy holders which he quotes. On pages 25-28 
of Gowin's study ^ he gives in order of rank the average height 
and weight of leaders, for example: 

Height Weight 

Rank ^''^^^ ^''^^'^ Rank 

1 Reformers 5' 11.4" 181.7 17 

2 Superintendents of Street Cleaning 5' 11. 3" 216.7 i 
8 University Presidents 5' 10.8" 181. 6 18 

16 Presidents, Religious Organizations 5' 10.4" 169.8 31 

28 Insurance Presidents 5' 9.7" 175-2 25 

29 Psychologists . . .' 5' 9.7" 155.3 40 

35 Anti-Saloon League Officials . . 5' 9.2" 176.3 24 

39 Publishers 5' 7.9" 171. 9 26 

40 Musicians 5' 5.6" 161. 9 37 

His figures are in averages rather than in medians. The average 
height of the ministers in this study sending replies is 5' 8.9", which 
places them a little above labor organizers and a little below manu- 
facturers and lecturers, but quite typically in the class of "intellectu- 
als." The figures which Gowin quotes for the average of all policy 
holders are 58.5 inches. This must be a misprint for 5' 8.5", so that 
the group of ministers would be less than a half inch above the 
average of their fellows and practically the same as Gowin's group 
of preachers in small towns, 5' 8.8". 

Height Dif. Weight Dif. 

Bishops 5' 10.6" 176.4 

Preachers, Small Towns 5' 8.8" 1.8 159.4 i7-0 

University Presidents 5' 10.8" 181. 6 

Presidents, Small Colleges .... 5' 9.6" 1.2 164.0 17.6 

City School Superintendents ... 5' 10.4" 178.6 

Principals, Small Towns 5' 9.7" .7 157.6 21.0 



The Executive and His Control of Men. 



A Study of Theological School Graduates 75 

The division between economic struggle and comfort in the homes 
from which the group came is almost exactly even in so far as it is 
specified. Forty of the men experienced both struggle and comfort 
at different periods in their early life. Only two look back on a 
childhood of ease, although two more speak of having had conditions 
of ease during part of their school days. As to the relation of the 
economic to the social environment, omitting the mixed cases in 
which an individual had both comfort and struggle and lived in 
various sized communities, 50 per cent of those living in the country 
specified hardship and struggle and only one third of those in the 
city so specify. Not quite half of those in the country look back to a 
childhood of unmixed comfort. Take it all in all, as far as the men 
who answered these questions can be taken as representative, the 
ministers who graduated from theological schools during the decade 
under consideration were of slightly more than average physique, 
acquainted with the small town and country social life and con- 
ditions, schooled in effort, and more often than not in the actual 
struggle with hardship. 

TABLE XXVII 

Early Opportunities Specified 

No. Total 

Good School Advantages ' 127 

Public schools 61 

High schools (including private schools, 3) 48 

Business college 3 

Night school I 

College (in home town or way paid) 14 

Special Cultural Opportunities 24 

Good libraries or good books Ii 

Special music opportunities 5 

Special art opportunities 2 

Special travel opportunities 6 

Church Advantages 25 

Nearby, attendance, church work, etc 20 

Sunday Schools 5 

Good Home and Parentage 65 

"Educated" or "college trained" 4 

Parents teachers ■ 4 

"Culture" 4 



76 Success in the Christian Ministry 

"Godly" or "spiritual" mother 8 

"(jodly" or "spiritual" father 5 

"Godly" or "spiritual" grandfather i 

Good parentage 18 

Parsonage home 19 

Only son i 

One of large family I 

Home Sympathy and Encouragement 

Social Advantages 

Ministers visited home 2 

Christian teachers 3 

Christian associates i 

City and its varied life i 

Physical advantages 

Country life 13 

Ground for planting I 

Outdoor sports and exercises 7 

Nature lore and woodcraft 6 

"Wholesome" environment 5 

Good health 6 

Special training in 

Gardening or farming 6 

Mechanics i 

"Self-reliance" and "accuracy" 3 

Business 2 

Managing others ■ • -^ i 

Earning 7 

"Hard work" 10 



23 

7 



38 



30 



TABLE XXVIII 
Early Responsibilities Specified 

Entire Self-Support 

(i at 7 years, 2 at 9, i at 11, 4 at 13, 4 at 15, i at 16, 3 at 18, 
4 not specified) 

Partial Self-Support 

(i at II, 2 at 12, 4 at 14, i at 15, 6 not specified) 

Responsibility for Home 

Father ill 6 

Widowed mother 20 

(whole or part responsibility at various ages from 9 years on) 

Mother died 5 

Caring for younger members of family 17 

Care of invalid mother 3 

Confidant of parents, financial struggle 7 

Helping with mortgage 3 



14 
61 



A Study of Theological School Graduates 77 

Responsibility for Management 43 

Farm (whole 7, part 11) 18 

Stock 8 

Stock farm 4 

Herding 4 

Store or grocery clerk 7 

Crews of harvesters 2 

Business and Labor Responsibilities 62 

Laundry, milk and paper routes 3 

Newspaper and printing office 3 

Bookkeeping, office, banking and business 7 

Lumber woods, saw mill i 

Machine shop 3 

Carpenter 2 

Farm (32) and Garden (3) 35 

Poultry, chores, etc 8 

Responsibility for own education 99 

Public school (whole) i 

High school (whole, 18, part 5) 23 

College (whole, 33, part 9) 42 

Theological school (whole 28, part 5) 33 

Social responsibilities 23 

Sunday school teacher 4 

Sunday school superintendent (age 16) i 

Local preacher (age 22, 16) 2 

Epworth League president (i at 18) 5 

Y. M. C. A. president 2 

High school class officer 2 

Teacher 5 

College tutor 2 

The outlook on life which these individuals gained in their boy- 
hood environment is interestingly shown in their replies to the 
questions regarding special opportunities and responsibilities. Al- 
though thirty specified their opportunities as "none" and twenty- 
four said they had no special responsibilities during childhood, the 
majority seemed to have plenty of both. Tables XXVII and 
XXVIII give a summary of those which they most frequently 
specified. 

A few quotations make these summaries even more vivid. Op- 
timism is shown by regarding as opportunities "permission to work 
my way through school and college." "At 15, I was given the privi- 
lege of earning what I could, — did not have to help my parents." 



78 Success in the Christian Ministry 

"A grandfather who knew how to keep me at it from early till late." 
Another found that farm work afforded "physical exercise, medita- 
tion and thought." One cites as a special opportunity "an illness 
that threw my interests from mechanics (inherited), into the realm 
of religion. I know of no ancestor who was a clergyman." "Father 
and mother both lived until the family was grown." "Comparatively 
perfect use of all my faculties." "The opportunity to work my way 
through preparatory -school, college and seminary with $80 as a 
starting fund." 

Among the many references to opportunities through the home 
are such as these: "A Union Sunday school in a school house near 
our home gave me a religious inclination." Cultural opportunities are 
variously specified such as "refined and cultured home," "musical 
mother," "splendid German training," "serious-minded and in- 
dustrious parents." "I worked for a man who belonged to a library 
club and was loaned some very good books through him." "Father 
was a bookdealer, so I had a wider reading than the village afforded 
most boys." A very few mention financial help from relatives or 
from church funds. One says that his opportunities were "None. 
Never saw a train till I was 12, never was in a city till 17." But 
another had a "900 mile trip in a wagon at eight." A very few mention 
Chautauquas, "World's Fairs," or summer conferences. Some speak 
of later opportunities, such as high school debating, Y.M.C.A. 
work, leading boys' camps, and serving as assistant to an unusually 
successful pastor. Two had European travel in later youth. 

Comments on responsibilities indicate that few had a care-free 
childhood. One took "a man's place in the field from my 13th year." 
Another was "at home with mother while father was hundreds of 
miles away at work,^ — -I was a little father to the family." One did 
not have a home after his fifteenth birthday; another had a constant 
struggle to keep himself in health. Another had "hard labor and no 
schooling between 10 and 17," while still another "left school at 1 1 and 
graduated from college and seminary after marriage." Many men- 
tion various financial responsibilities which seem to have involved 
some opportunity also, such as "Bought clothes with pig money," 
"Handling all the farm machinery while brothers did the other 
parts"; "Responsibilitity for buying and feeding stock"; "Walking 
three miles each day to attend a three-year high school"; "Regular 
tasks on farm as rapidly as strength permitted but no personal 
compensation till after 21"; wood-chopping, milking, getting drift 



A Study of Theological School Graduates 79 

wood from river, factory work, errand boy, bookkeeper, iron molder, 
and a summary given by one, "All kinds of ordinary work for earning 
a living." As Table XXVIII shows, several were orphans or half- 
orphans. One took care of both parents (one for 20 years) till they 
died, and educated himself at the same time. 

All in all, the impression is of ambition, hard work, moral rugged- 
ness, and a certain tendency of the environment to individualize, 
rather than socialize the outlook of the majority. There was struggle, 
sometimes desperate struggle, against poverty and adverse cir- 
cumstances which seemed to affect the individual or his immediate 
family, giving sympathetic understanding for their buffeted or 
discouraged fellows, but little background for cooperative social 
endeavor. 

INDIVIDUAL INTERESTS AND ABILITIES 

What kind of boys were they? What did they like best to do and 
what did they do best? Tables XXIX-XXXIV summarize the 
100 complete answers received to the questions in Table I of the 
questionnaire. The ten characteristics in the table were chosen for 
three reasons. Some of them, like study with books, managing 
people, planning and inventing, and a certain amount of clerical 
work and bargaining, might seem to be desirable or at least useful 
in certain functions of the ministry. Others, such as experimenting, 
mechanical work, and observing facts in nature, would tend to 
show how wide in range were those interests which might be taken as 
the basis of "cultural" development. The interest in farm work 
might show whether the boys liked their environment and duties or 
sought the profession of the ministry as an escape from work that 
was distasteful. The interest in athletics and organized games 
might be expected to show something of the temperament and 
disposition of these individuals. Another reason for including seven 
of these characteristics is that they had already been made the 
subject of a study by Professor Thorndike and would thus afford a 
basis for comparing results with a different group. 

•The only thing which stands out without doubt and with little 
change during the grammar school, preparatory school and college 
ages is the fact that they liked to study with books. (See Tables 
XXIX, XXXI.) The other activities which more than 50 per cent 
of them place in the upper half of the scale of relative interest dur- 
ing grammar school days are, in the order named, athletics, farm 



8o 



Success in the Christian Ministry 



TABLE XXIX 

Early Interests 

Order 123 

Bargaining 4 2 11 

Managing People 3 9 8 

Studying Books 35 20 11 

Experimenting 6 9 

Planning and Inventing 4 9 8 

Observing Facts in Nature ... 5 8 14 

Clerical Work 2 4 3 

Mechanical Work 12 13 6 

Farm Work 15 14 13 

Athletics 20 14 17 



5 


II 


10 


II 


14 


12 


20 


9 


13 


II 


10 


15 


15 


6 


2 


4 


8 


2 


2 


I 


4 


4 


15 


II 


17 


15 


9 


4 


7 


II 


13 


16 


14 


12 


6 


6 


10 


14 


10 


10 


13 


5 


8 


7 


8 


II 


13 


16 


28 


.2 


10 


8 


9 


12 


II 


7 


9 


12 


10 


5 


3 


4 


15 


8 


7 


II 


9 


2 


7 


5 



TABLE XXX 

Early Abilities 

Order 1234 

Bargaining 4 4 711 

Managing People 13 15 3 

Studying Books 47 22 6 9 

Experimenting 4 13 10 

Planning and Inventing 3 8 6 4 

Observing Facts in Nature ... 6 811 8 

Clerical Work 2 4 4 9 

Mechanical Work 12 11 12 13 

Farm Work 15 17 13 10 

Athletics 11 10 13 15 



7 


9 


H 


13 


13 


18 


10 


13 


10 


II 


14 


II 


3 


4 


4 


2 


3 




16 


9 


18 


13 


9 


8 


8 


15 


6 


16 


15 


II 


15 


10 


15 


12 


12 


4 


10 


12 


12 


II 


13 


22 


II 


6 


6 


13 


9 


10 


II 


10 


5 


4 


6 


6 


8 


13 


10 


5 


6 


9 



TABLE XXXI 

Adolescent Interests 

Order i 2 j 4 

Bargaining 7 712 

Managing People 5 9 18 13 

Studying Books 58 15 7 5 

Experimenting 2 9 5 18 

Planning and Inventing 2 7 14 8 

Observing Facts in Nature ... 3 8 917 

Clerical Work 2 9 6 3 

Mechanical Work 10 9 7 9 

Farm Work 11 12 16 8 

Athletics 11 15 12 9 



5 


13 


8 


16 


II 


21 


12 


7 


9 


4 


16 


7 


3 


5 


6 




2 




14 


10 


9 


21 


8 


4 


9 


II 


16 


10 


II 


10 


15 


6 


19 


8 


9 


6 


7 


10 


9 


16 


13 


25 


12 


14 


6 


22 


5 


7 


13 


14 


5 


5 


5 


12 


10 


12 


13 


5 


6 


7 



5 


<:> 


7 


<?^ 


P 


70 


6 


15 


12 


15 


8 


15 


14 


3 


7 


13 


15 


6 


5 


5 




2 


I 




14 


7 


i6 


iB 


8 


8 


8 


14 


i6 


II 


H 


13 


9 


14 


i8 


II 


9 


6 


6 


lO 


12 


12 


II 


20 


14 


6 


7 


13 


i6 


II 


13 


H 


4 


3 


4 


II 


12 


12 


10 


4 


lO 


6 



^ Study of Theological School Graduates 81 

TABLE XXXII 

Adolescent Abilities 

Order 1234 

Bargaining 3 4 8 14 

Managing People 3 9 18 13 

Studying Books 55 22 7 3 

Experimenting 3 12 4 10 

Planning and Inventing 3 213 6 

Observing Facts in Nature ... 3 9 5 16 

Clerical Work 7 12 9 

Mechanical Work 7 8 6 12 

Farm Work 21 15 11 4 

Athletics 4 14 15 13 

TABLE XXXIII 

Present Interests 

Order 12345678QIO 

Bargaining 3 12 8 6 10 8 13 9 30 

Managing People 34 35 8 11 4 4 i 3 

Study with Books 57 27 9 i 3 i i 

Experimenting 2 10 12 7 10 12 14 19 14 

Planning and Inventing 3 3 10 10 10 10 10 15 19 10 

Observing Facts in Nature ... 2 9- 19 15 13 13 14 6 8 i 

Clerical Work 2 9 9 18 9 9 10 13 10 11 

Mechanical Work 3 9 10 10 13 16 15 16 8 

Farm Work i 9 6 13 21 11 13 19 5 12 

Athletics 9 6 13 19 17 10 13 13 



TABLE XXXIV 

Present Abilities 

Order i 2 j 4 

Bargaining i 4 18 10 

Managing People 30 33 10 10 

Study with Books 50 28 8 3 

Experimenting i 2 4 9 

Planning and Inventing 4 3 10 11 

Observing Facts in Nature ... i 7 18 17 

Clerical Work 3 11 14 11 

Mechanical Work 2 6 8 6 

Farm Work i 9 8 13 

Athletics 411 



5 


6 


7 


8 


9 


10 


II 


7 


9 


II 


8 


21 


7 


3 


4 

I 


3 






17 


17 


9 


13 


15 


13 


5 


17 


14 


13 


17 


6 


12 


II 


14 


6 


8 


4 


15 


8 


II 


13 


10 


8 


13 


9 


19 


II 


16 


10 


H 


10 


8 


14 


10 


13 


9 


15 


13 


14 


14 


20 



82 Success in the Christian Ministry 

work, mechanical work, observing facts in nature and managing 
people. By the high school period the interest has shifted somewhat 
so that while athletics and farm life divide the place next to books, 
managing people is a close third and the interest in mechanical 
work and nature lore is slightly waning. They do not seem to have 
been a particularly experimental or inventive group, while bargain- 
ing and clerical work are generally in the lowest places in their 
interest. 

Quite evidently that original trait w^hich is the dominant influence 
in steering youth toward the profession of the ministry is the love 
of working with ideas rather than with things. As the individual 
matures, his interest in the source of ideas and the means of working 
out ideas, people, increases till it equals and often surpasses the 
interest in the depositories of ideas, books. While even a casual 
inspection of Tables XXIX-XXXIV shows the permanence of 
the main interest, the permanence of other interests is also high. 
Using columns 3 and 7 of Table II of the questionnaire for ex- 
ample (interests during high school age and the present): 

Taking the differences in the order of ranking, trait by trait, 
and recording the sum of those differences for each of the 100 com- 
plete cases, the average for all was 21.4. If there had been no 
change in the order of interest in the two periods this sum would 
in each case have been zero. If there were no relation whatever 
between the order of interests in the two periods (i changing as 
frequently with 9 or 10 as with 2 or remaining at i), this sum would 
on the average have been 33. To find the actual correlation a dis- 
tribution table of the individual difference sums was made out, 
showing the median to be 20. Working this out (by the formula 

r= 2 cos- (i + R) ) 

the correlation coefficient of interests between high school age and 
maturity is found to be +.61. 

What is the relation of interest to ability? Several said "the 
same." In many cases there was but slight difference in order of 
rank, though some expressed a high interest in activities in which 
they say they had little ability — such as athletics or mechanical 
work. Conclusions here await the arithmetical work of computing 
the correlations between each pair of columns. 

Pennanence of ability was n^easured in the same w^ay, using 
columns 4 and 8 (high school and present ability) as representative 



A Study of Theological School Graduates 83 

periods. The median (20) and hence the correlation +.61, were 
the same as between interests for the same period. 

When the results of certain studies projected or now in process 
are available, it will be interesting and significant to compare the 
interests and abilities at the different age periods of such groups as 
engineers, lawyers, physicians, agriculturists, teachers, and indus- 
trial and commercial leaders with those of this group of ministers. 
For further conclusions of vocational significance it is necessary 
to postpone computations with the material now on hand until 
such parallel data are accessible. 

It is clear that the men now in the ministry are there because 
of their original interest in ideas and in persons. As to other inter- 
ests, Lowell's findings in his study of Harvard graduates in Law 
and Medicine seem to have some bearing. He found that there 
was no relation between interest as shown by courses chosen in 
college and ability as show^n by honors in professional school, 
but a close relation between college honors and honors in pro- 
fessional school. Hence original interest and ability in dealing 
with objective facts such as natural sciences, mechanics, or busi- 
ness relations, should be no bar to interest and success in the 
Christian ministry. The needs of the profession would be more 
adequately met by the inclusion of men with such interests, and 
especially of those with inventive' and experimental tendencies 
who should furnish leadership in finding, under new conditions of 
human life, new methods for accomplishing the fundamentally 
changeless purposes of the Christian ministry. 

It seems probable that the trait here called "executive ability" 
is closely related to what the intelligence tests for adults call "gen- 
eral ability." The correlations of the four abilities with each other, 
with achievemient in the various items of work in the pastorate, 
with educational, executive, and editorial work, and with grades 
in the theological seminary, point in this direction. This is a trait 
the degree of which can be determined early in an individual's 
life. 

General Conclusions 

It may therefore be said that some qualities associated with 
success in the Christian ministry include first of all a high general 
intelligence, and general ability to handle human problems and 
relationships, rather than more specialized traits. This ability can 



84 Success in the Christian Ministry 

be determined early enough in an individual's school life to select 
the promising candidates and present to them the possibilities of 
the ministry as a field of life work. 

Certain intellectual traits correlated with high examination 
grades indicate the probability that the individuals possessing 
them will ultimately choose the field of higher education. Probably 
there is no better vocational preparation for a teacher in the theo- 
logical seminary than such an institution itself. For other educa- 
tional positions and for social, editorial, and executive positions 
in the church, some additional courses, probably in combination 
with other professional schools, should afford the necessary com- 
bination of religious motive and outlook and specialized skill. 

In the pastorate itself, in addition to the "executive" or general 
ability, and the closely linked ability to preach forceful and con- 
vincing sermons, the quality most closely associated with success 
is a tireless sympathy and a tireless energy in meeting individual 
personal demands which make the good pastor. Under present 
conditions these abilities, which function in cooperative endeavor 
and in the personal relationships arising from organized social 
life, are shown by the preceding study to be more closely associated 
with success than is evangelistic ability in the sense of the ability 
to alter the habits and attitudes of mature individuals by intellectual 
and emotional appeal. 



PART III 

A STUDY OF ESTIMATED VALUES OF CURRICULUM 

SUBJECTS IN COLLEGE AND THEOLOGICAL 

TRAINING^ 

Introduction 

In all professions the graduates of certain leading training schools 
have such a dominant influence on the ideals and standards of their 
associates and of the public that they may be said to a large degree 
to be making the profession. It is also true that all graduates, 
by their reactions and criticisms, are to a certain extent making 
the professional schools. 

A great deal has been written about the curricula of professional 
schools of all kinds, and theological schools have received their 
fair share of attention. There is David Spence Hill's dissertation 
for the doctorate at Clark University in 1908, The Problems and 
Education of the Protestant Ministry. There are articles such as 
"The Theological Curriculum and a 'Teaching Ministry" by H. B. 
Robinson and "The Demands of Democracy upon the Theological 
Seminary" by F. A. Starratt (both in the American Journal of 
Theology for October, 19 18), "The Seminary of Tomorrow" by W. 
A. Brown (in the Harvard Theological Review for April, 19 19) and 
the two articles by Orlo J. Price, previously quoted. It is a fair 
summary of these and others, and of pertinent sections of more 
general discussions, to say that they deal with suggested changes 
from the standpoint of individual judgment and desires. Men in 
the thick of affairs in the pastorate, educators alert to the changing 
needs of the times, even laymen analyzing their needs and tastes 
which the ministers fail to meet, say, "This subject must be added, 
and this, — and this." Perforce other subjects would have to be 

^ This section did not form part of the original dissertation. It deals with the 
material returned in the second part of the questionnaire and is included to complete 
the study, and also because of the keen interest in the topic manifested by the respon- 
dents. As will be seen, the figures are complicated with too many unmeasured variables 
to admit of indubitable conclusions, but the general trends shown have value in clearing 
the ground for further study, and indicate its direction by the questions they raise. 



86 Success in the Christian Ministry 

dropped to make room for them, and each individual is ready to do 
away with those which he did not Hke or has not used. 

In so far as this investigator could ascertain there has been here- 
tofore no attempt to secure from any considerable number of pro- 
fessional men a statement, in terms susceptible of statistical treat- 
ment, of the positive and relative value of the subjects they actually 
did study. It would, seem wise to gain such data as a preliminary to 
a practical policy either of "conservatism" of real fundamentals or 
of "radical" omissions of what may be proved to be outworn. As 
the college course should, ideally, form a firm foundation for later 
specialization, and its wide range of electives makes some principle 
of choice imperative, both college and theological curricula were 
included in the present study. 

I. Source and Extent of Data 

The questionnaires - sent to all the available graduates of the 
year 1902-1911 of Boston University School of Theology, Drew 
Theological Seminary, and Garrett Biblical Institute contained 
blank tables (Tables II and III) which provided space for the numer- 
ical valuation of the courses included in the curricula of those 
institutions as printed in their catalogues during those years, and 
of the main groups of courses offered in standard colleges and 
universities in that decade and the few years preceding. For the 
sake of inclusiveness and simplicity the titles were generalized 
to the utmost. For instance, "Languages, Semitic," would include 
the entire process of learning the grammar and vocabulary of 
Aramaic and Arabic, if such were offered, as well as of Hebrew; 
while the interpretation as distinct from the mere translation of 
the latter would come under "Exegesis, Hebrew." "Science, Bio- 
logical," w^ould admit the evaluation of anything from a general 
introductory course to advanced research in animal or plant his- 
tology. Not one particular section or semester but the general 
trend of the subject was considered to be the matter of importance. 
The following directions were given : 

Let the value to your subsequent life and activities of a class-room hour of a 
fundamental English course be a unit of measure, and call it 10. Estimate the 
comparative value (whether "practical" or "inspirational") in your ministerial life 
of each course taken in your college work, by a number in the blank space following 

2 See page 41 ff. and insert. 



Values of Ciirricidum Subjects in College and Seminary 87 

the appropriate heading, thus: if a class-room hour of Greek has had the same 
value as an hour of English, mark it 10; if twice as valuable, 20; if less valuable, 9 
or less. If any course had no value to your life and work as a Christian minister, 
mark it zero. Place no mark after courses not taken. 

In the same manner, mark the studies of your theological course with numbers 
indicating their value as compared with the same unit "10," as in Table II. 

In all, 310 filled or partly filled questionnaires were returned.^ 
The relative interest of these men in their own natural endowment 
and in the training they received may be seen by the fact that 
while only 103 sent replies to Table I sufficiently complete to be of 
use, 305 filled out Table III, and Table II was filled by 281. Some 
of these 24 men who did not fill in Table II were diploma graduates 
who had not taken a full college course, and others reported such a 
long interval between college and seminary that their memory 
for the former was less keen, or they omitted it for lack of 
interest. 

These replies cover about one fourth of all the graduates of the 
period considered, and very nearly one third of those living and in 
the United States at the time the letters were sent. They are from a 
selected group in so far as willingness to answer a questionnaire is 
a basis of selection. Otherwise they must be considered representa- 
tive of every form of work engaged in by the Methodist ministers in 
the United States. New England, th-e far South, the entire length 
of the Pacific seaboard, the Middle West and the Middle Atlantic 
States, the Rocky Mountain regions and the New Southwest, are 
all indicated in the post marks and letter-heads of the replies. The 
General Minutes show the writers to be stationed in great city 
churches, on the "Main Street" of towns, in rural circuits, in churches 
of all nations in cities east and west, in home mission fields, and in 
the offices of the great denominational Boards and publications. A 
few are from graduates preaching in other denominations. Hence 
the judgments on the comparative "value in their life and work as a 
Christian minister," of the various subjects studied in preparation, 
as shown in Tables XXXV and XXXVI, would seem to be a fair 
cross section of the judgments thereon of Methodist ministers 
who entered their work during the first decade of the twentieth 
century. 

For comparative study it was possible to divide the data somewhat 
according to the classification used in Part II, as follows: 

' See page 73. 



15 


15 


2 


2 


22 


22 


38 


40 



88 Success in the Christian Ministry 

College Theological 

Subjects Subjects 

Executives 

Editors 

Educators 

Highest Salaried Pastors 

{i. e., in proportion from each school) 

Lowest Salaried Pastors 34 39 

(ditto) 

All other replies, including i (woman) pastor's as- 
sistant, I local preacher (business man) and several 
from other denominations 170 187 

281 305 

2. Analysis of Total Ratings of Curricula 

What did the figures mean to those who did the rating? The 
standard given them was chosen because the equivalent of a funda- 
mental college course in English analysis and composition had been 
required of every one who entered a theological school, and some 
use of it in professional life must be obvious. The number 10 fits 
naturally into our decimal habits of counting. Certain strong 
tendencies were observable in the individual papers. Some used 
the 10 as a central point, grading an equal distance either side, 
from o to 20. Others thought in multiples : one-half as valuable was 
5 and twice as valuable was 20. A very few matched digits with 
decades and placed 5 and 50, 2 and 80 as equidistant from the 
standard. Within these schemes of marking were seen other per- 
sonal tendencies — to conceive of English as so fundamental that few 
subsequent studies could equal it in daily use and hence to mark 
nearly all the subjects 9 or less; or to think of English as so elemen- 
tary that practically all the professional subjects were marked 
higher. A few showed high lights and bold contrasts, marking the 
favored subjects as 600 or 1000, and others as —25 or —100, with 
an explanatory note that they "had some value, but the waste of 
time was great." Some courageously owned up that they got very 
little out of their courses and gave all but a few subjects o, i, 2 or 3. 

There was, on the whole, a general tendency to give the 10 to 
subjects that came up to a reasonable standard of conscious useful- 
ness and hence to give that mark to most of the subjects. Some, 
on the other hand, carefully balanced between 7's and 8's, i8's and 
19's, between 6o's and 65's. Owing to space and type restrictions in 



Values of Curriculum Subjects in College and Seminary 89 

a page of this size these fine distinctions have been lost in the 
coarser grading into the nine groups: zero or less, 1-4, 5-9, 10, 1 1-14, 
15-19, 20, 25-45, 50-100 or more. 

A very real difficulty was brought out by several who said they 
found it impossible to evaluate the subject separated from the 
teacher's personality. For example, some gave a very low mark to 
college Greek and a very high one to seminary Greek and Exegesis, 
explaining that the actual Greek was little used but the inspiration 
of the later teacher or teachers was one of the most permanently 
"useful" contributions of the seminary course. So with other subjects ; 
while one with an apparently unfortunate experience noted beside 
certain low ratings, "I give not what these courses ought to have 
been worth to me, but what they actually were worth"; several 
commented "Did not get enough of this," indicating interest in the 
subject matter itself. 

The accompanying letters indicate that to some men the college 
period and the seminary period made a total contribution to growth 
in which the various courses blend indistinguishably. "Atmosphere, 
association, outlook, — these seem more significant to me than 
particular subjects studied" is the way one sums it up. Some who 
replied cordially stated that they were unable after the lapse of 
years to give any numerical ratings. One made his scale as follows: 
"The value of these years to my present success is in about this 
proportion: Three-fifths to my associations in affairs (athletic, 
social and executive relations with students, and earning way 
through) ; one-fifth to the strong personalities of half a dozen men 
apart from what they taught; one-fifth to the subjects taught." 

One comment is full of insight. "I believe that certain training 
which might result in very high efficiency, if followed up after 
graduation, proves of very little value because the minister lets 
his study of the subject cease as soon as examinations are past. — 
Yesterday a city preacher who is not 'making good,' seeing in my 
hand a pocket Greek text — which I always carry with me, said: 
'Have you kept up your Greek? I never could retain my interest in 
it.' He has depended on a good presence and a genial disposition to 
get somewhere and he has gone as far as he ever will, though he is 
comparatively young." 

Yet with the inevitable differences in personal outlook and ex- 
perience, in standards and proportions in rating, the massed judg- 
ments of three hundred men do show significant trends. One is the 



90 



Success in the Christian Ministry 



TABLE XXXV 

281 Theological School Graduates' Estimate of the Value of Subjects in 
Their College Curricula 



English 

Analysis and Compo- 

position .... 
Literature .... 

Languages 

Latin 

Greek 

French 

German 

Spanish or Italian . 

History 

Ancient 

General 

European .... 
American .... 

Mathematics 

Pure 

Applied 

Science 
Biological 
Physical . 
Chemistry 
Geology . 
Astronomy 

Philosophy 

Introduction, His 

tory 

Logic 

Ethics 

Psychology 

Descriptive . . . 

Experimental . . 

Educational . . . 






T 


5 




I J 


J5 




25 


50 






or 


to 


to 


10 


to 


to 


20 


to 


to 


Mark 




~ 


4 


9 




J4 


19 




40 


100 












281 



















I 


25 


106 


10 


24 


61 


10 


2 


42 




4 


26 


132 


82 


4 


5 


13 


4 


I 


10 




4 


23 


96 


66 


9 


24 


26 


13 


3 


17 




9 


44 


53 


14 


I 


2 











158 




II 


45 


107 


20 


2 


4 


5 


2 


I 


84 




8 


10 


3 


2 





I 





I 





256 




I 


9 


90 


84 


II 


25 


31 


5 


I 


24 




I 


6 


84 


83 


12 


26 


34 


10 


2 


23 




I 


13 


78 


78 


II 


22 


30 


8 


3 


2>7 







3 


69 


88 


12 


28 


39 


15 


4 


23 




18 


33 


114 


66 


5 


12 


8 


5 


I 


19 




15 


24 


76 


29 


3 


6 


6 


4 


2 


116 




I 


19 


77 


41 


8 


15 


16 


4 


4 


96 




2 


25 


86 


49 


8 


17 


13 


5 


3 


73 




8 


33 


104 


45 


5 


8 


5 


2 


3 


68 




4 


19 


81 


57 


8 


8 


14 


5 


I 


84 




4 


10 


72 


38 


10 


10 


II 


4 


4 


118 




3 


13 


60 


65 


5 


12 


26 


10 


4 


83 




I 


16 


84 


88 


10 


19 


25 


4 


8 


26 







7 


60 


78 


14 


23 


49 


II 


8 


31 




3 


13 


76 


73 


12 


24 


24 


7 


4 


45 




2 


6 


42 


32 


6 


17 


II 


6 


5 


154 




3 


4 


43 


41 


7 


20 


20 


7 


2 


134 





Less 

Than 
Eng. 



26 



162 
123 
106 

163 
21 



100 
91 
92 

72 

165 
115 



99 
113 
145 
104 

86 



76 

[OI 

67 

92 
50 
50 



More 
Than 
Eng. 



107 



27 
75 

3 
14 

2 



73 

152 
98 



47 
56 
23 
36 
39 



67 
66 

95 

71 
45 
56 



^ahies of Curriculum Subjects in College and Seminary 91 



TABLE :i^'yiXV— Continued 

281 Theological School Graduates' Estimate of the Value of Subjects 
IN Their College Curricula 








I 


5 




II 


15 




25 


50 


iVo 


Less 


More 




or 


to 


to 


10 


to 


to 


20 


to 


to 


Mark 


Than 


Than 






4 


9 




14 


19 




40 


100 




Eng. 


Eng. 


Social Sciences 








Economics .... 


2 


12 


87 


54 


16 


13 


18 


6 


4 


69 


lOI 


57 


Social Theory . . 


I 


6 


43 


39 


II 


16 


II 


I 


2 


151 


50 


41 


Descriptive Sociol- 


























ogy 


2 


4 


50 


41 


10 


19 


17 


2 


2 


129 


56 


55 


Practical Sociology 


I 


5 


50 


44 


7 


29 


24 


9 


7 


105 


56 


76 


Voice and Ear 


























Music and Singing 


4 


8 


48 


62 


8 


16 


16 


9 


2 


108 


60 


51 


Elocution, Oratory 


4 


10 


51 


81 


15 


23 


44 


15 


6 


32 


65 


103 


Speaking and Debate 


5 


6 


34 


64 


16 


29 


56 


20 


6 


45 


45 


127 



relative proportion for which "no mark" was given. This generally, 
although not always, indicates that in college the subject was not 
elected and in seminary not offered. Table XXXV reflects the 
accepted "classical course" which was the almost inevitable prep- 
aration for theological training. Almost everyone took Latin, 
Greek, and pure mathematics. For the elective "one modern 
language" few chose French and fewer still could have found Spanish 
or Italian in the colleges of that period. Biology and geology were 
less often elected than the more familiar (and perhaps theologically 
safer) physics and chemistry. Astronomy and applied mathematics 
were still more infrequent electives. At that period psychology and 
the social sciences were newer and less developed and music and 
singing were rather looked upon as "extras" than as legitimate 
credits toward a degree. 

Table XXXVI shows the fact, confirmed by the catalogues, 
that it was only in the latter part of the decade studied that courses 
in religious education, psychology, social sciences, and the lan- 
guages, religions and psychology of missions fields were offered in the 
theological schools. The other theological subjects with a large 
proportion of "no mark" were music and singing, public speaking and 
debate, "praxis" (sermons before classmates and professors), Biblical 



92 



Success in the Christian Ministry 



TABLE XXXVI 



305 Theological School Graduates' Estimate of the Value 
OF Subjects in Their Theological Curricula 








/ 


5 




II 


15 




25 


50 


No 


Less 


More 




or 


to 


to 


10 


to 


to 


20 


to 


to 


Alo/tk 


Than 


Than 




— 


4 


9 




14 


19 




45 


100 




Eng. 


Eng. 


English 

Composition, Ser- 


























mons 


8 


7 


37 


112 


II 


25 


50 


9 


3 


43 


52 


98 


Literature .... 


I 


2 


26 


85 


5 


15 


35 


8 


5 


123 


29 


68 


Languages 


























Semitic 


5 


25 


84 


37 


5 


12 


15 


I 


2 


119 


114 


35 


Greek 


5 


17 


86 


65 


8 


29 


39 


8 


3 


45 


108 


87 


Oriental (and Phon- 


























ics) 


3 


4 


3 


5 











2 





288 


10 


2 


History 


























Church and Insti- 


























tutions .... 





7 


73 


84 


20 


38 


36 


II 


5 


31 


80 


no 


Geography, Ar- 


























chaeology . . . 


I 


12 


76 


45 


4 


19 


15 


5 


3 


125 


89 


51 


Missions, Evangel- 


























ism 





8 


60 


60 


12 


21 


34 


7 


5 


98 


68 


79 


Exegesis 


























Hebrew 


4 


30 


80 


54 


II 


20 


34 


8 


4 


60 


114 


77 


Greek 


2 


14 


76 


59 


II 


35 


49 


18 


6 


35 


92 


119 


English 


I 


7 


36 


73 


10 


30 


59 


16 


7 


66 


44 


122 


Doctrine 


























History and Devel- 


























opment .... 





9 


68 


64 


14 


22 


24 


13 


5 


86 


77 


78 


Systematic Theology 


2 


10 


52 


78 


19 


40 


60 


33 


7 


4 


67 


159 


Apologetics . . . 


2 


13 


'J2 


71 


15 


27 


41 


3 


4 


57 


87 


90 


Practical Theology 


























Denominational 


























Polity and Ad- 


























ministration . . 


6 


17 


82 


65 


10 


18 


20 


7 


3 


77 


165 


58 


Parish and Pas- 


























toral Problems . 


3 


16 


74 


65 


20 


24 


35 


10 


6 


52 


93 


95 


Homiletics .... 


2 


14 


17 


82 


19 


34 


45 


16 


5 


18 


86 


119 


Praxis 


8 


12 


33 


24 


4 


12 


16 


I 


I 


194 


53 


34 


Comparative Reli- 


























gions 


























History and Philos- 


























ophy of ... . 





10 


63 


65 


10 


35 


24 


8 


5 


85 


73 


82 



Values of Curriculum Subjects in College and Seminary 93 



TABLE XXKVl— Continued 

305 Theological School Graduates' Estimate of the Value 
OF Subjects in Their Theological Curricula 







or 


I 
to 


5 
to 


10 


II 
to 


15 
to 


20 


25 
to 


50 
to 




Less 

Than 


More 
Than 




I 


4 
5 


9 
39 


39 


14 

I 


19 

5 


21 


45 
II 


100 


Eng. 


Eng. 


Psychology of . . 
Relation to Mis- 


5 


178 


45 


43 


sions 





5 


41 


40 


6 


18 


18 


4 


4 


169 


46 


50 


Social Science 


























Social Theor\' . . 
Problems and Lab- 





7 


51 


46 


II 


17 


13 


9 


3 


148 


58 


53 


oratory .... 


I 


6 


24 


35 


C 


21 


15 


9 


4 


184 


31 


55 


Religious Education 


























Educational Theory 
Educational Mate- 





6 


27 


29 


2 


9 


10 


7 


4 


211 


33 


32 


rial 

Problems and Lab- 





4 


22 


17 


2 


4 


7 


6 


3 


240 


26 


22 


oratory .... 


I 


2 


9 


13 


3 


8 


10 


4 


3 


252 


12 


28 


Voice and Ear 


























Music, Singing . . 
Elocution, Oratory 
Speaking and Debate 


5 
5 
5 


16 

17 

7 


53 
51 
30 


78 
85 
50 


, 5 

II 

6 


19 
32 
23 


17 

44 
32 


8 

17 
13 


3 

4 
4 


lOI 

39 
135 


74 
73 
42 


52 
108 

78 



geography and archaeology, Semitic languages, and the history of 
missions. Most of these were either not given in one or more of these 
schools or were extra electives. 

Next in impressiveness is the group of subjects most closely 
"equal to English" in valuation. On the whole the mark 10 may be 
taken as a sort of "O.K." of acceptability as a fundamental in the 
curriculum. Those thus accepted by any considerable proportion 
of the men (although in several cases still larger groups differed 
with them) are, in the college, English literature, Latin, history, 
philosophy, oratory and speaking; and in the seminary, sermon 
writing, homiletics, oratory and music, church and missionary 
history, the doctrinal studies and English exegesis. 

Very interesting are those rated "of less value" than English 
by more than considered them "of greater value" (omitting the 



94 Success in the Christian Ministry 

lo's or "equal value" in this comparison). In college all the lan- 
guages, mathematics and sciences, political economy and logic, 
seem thus rather overwhelmingly in disfavor, with the scale tipped 
on the negative side also in social theory, ancient and general his- 
tory and history of philosophy. Individual comments may or may 
not explain these tendencies. "I never had enough (of German) 
to become proficient." "I could have become greatly interested in 
mathematics had I elected a career that required the practical 
use of mathematics." "The natural sciences interested me but I 
labored under the idea that the ministry required 'classical prepar- 
ation.'" "Elementary economics interested me greatly in my junior 
year in college. I therefore elected largely in economics and soci- 
ology during my senior year, only to be disappointed. Both books 
and teacher in this department were too abstract and too remote 
from the world of real men and women to be of any great value." 
In theological courses also the languages appear to be in general 
disfavor, shared by Hebrew exegesis, and the apparently "practical" 
subject of denominational polity and administration. 

Those declared by one or more to be of "no value" or a "waste 
of time" include all the college subjects except English literature, 
American history, and ethics, with especial emphasis against 
mathematics, modern languages and chemistry. In the seminary 
all that escaped the complete condemnation of one or more were 
the history of church missions and of doctrine, the history of 
philosophy, and educational theory and material. Those in greatest 
disfavor as "sheer waste" were praxis, denominational polity, the 
ancient languages and the work in music, oratory and public 
speaking (which also were given some of the highest valuations) 

3. Analysis of Comparative Ratings by Groups 

The best available way to compare the ratings as a whole with 
the ratings in each subject of the various groups, is by the use of 
medians. (That is, in each case the middle mark is chosen. For 
example, if 183 men marked systematic theology, the 92nd rating 
would have 91 below and 91 above. If only 86 men marked music, 
the rating would be midway between the 42nd and 43rd marks.) 
As the totals show, the range is so wide and the number of lo's 
so great that m.ost of the medians occur in the id's, making the 
differences show only by decimals. 



]^alucs of Curriculum Subjects in College and Seminary 95 

Answers to all the tables have been received from 2 editors, 
15 executives and 22 educators. The men from each theological 
school receiving the lowest and highest salaries of those sending 
replies total 40 in the two groups. Thirty-eight high-salaried and 
34 low-salaried pastors filled out the tables regarding the college 
subjects, while 39 high-salaried and all 40 of the low-salaried pastors 
gave ratings on the theological subjects. Of the remainder of the 
replies, 170 marked the college subjects and 187 the theological 
subjects. The median ratings of each of these groups are shown in 
Tables XXXVII and XXXVIII. Some apparent discrepancies 
between the medians for the individual subjects and those (at the 
left of each column) for the larger groups, such as languages, 
sciences, exegesis, etc., are due to the small number of marks on 
some of the subjects. For instance, if but three marked Spanish 
or Italian, the median might be 30; whereas the number in that 
group marking Latin might be 22. It is to be remembered that 
these marks are not averages. 

As is to be expected, the marks do not differ widely between the 
groups. It is, however, distinctly noticeable that the educators 
and high-salaried pulpit men mark English literature higher than 
do the other groups. The educators also marked the sciences in 
general, especially the biological sciences, higher than did the rest, 
although the editors and executives placed these studies almost 
as high as English. All placed the languages low, with the excep- 
tion of Greek; the executives are those who mark the languages 
lowest of all. Mathematics also are marked low by all groups. In 
general, they are marked highest by the lowest salaried group. 
The executives are the only ones who rate applied mathematics 
higher than pure mathematics. Most of the college graduates 
of that period were told that mathematics was essential to the 
curriculum because "it developed the logical faculties" and most 
of them believed it! Since the theory of "transfer of training" 
that this implied has failed to prove itself under the experimental 
searchlight, there seems to be a strong tendency, by those who 
disliked the subject, to discredit it altogether. The various branches 
of psychology were marked slightly higher by educators than by 
others, with the exception of experimental psychology, which is 
greatly favored by executives. The comparative attitudes toward 
the social sciences are interesting. The educators and the 
average pastors tend to rate these subjects about alike (10.6), 



96 



Success in the Christian Ministry 



TABLE XXXVII 

Comparison of Median Ratings of College Subjects 



English 
Literature 

Languages 

Latin 

Greek 

French 

German 

Spanish or Italian 

History 

Ancient 

General 

European 

American 

Mathematics .... 

Pure 

Applied . . 

Science . . 
Biological . . 

Physical 

Chemistry 

Geology 

Astronomy .... 

Philosophy 

Introduction, History 

Logic 

Ethics 

Psychology 

Descriptive .... 
Experimental . . . 
Educational .... 

Social Sciences . . . 

Economics 

Social Theory . . . 
Descriptive Sociology 
Practical Sociology . 



2 Editors 
and 15 
Execu- 
tives 



7.90 



10.60 



•30 



9.80 



10.60 



10.20 



8.00 
8.50 
5-00 
7.70 
1. 00 

10.40 
10.60 
10.80 
10.80 

5-50 
8.50 

9.50 
10.30 

9.50 
9.50 
9-50 

10.60 
10.00 
11.00 

9.50 

12.50 

9-50 

12.00 

9.00 

10.00 

15-50 



22 Edu- 
cators 



J 8 Highest 
Salaried 
Pastors 



8.95 



.40 



10.70 



[0.70 



10.60 



5-50 

8.50 
9-50 
7-50 
8.50 
3.00 

10.20 

9-50 
10.20 
10.40 

8.40 
8.50 
> 

12.50 
10.30 
18.80 
10.50 
10.30 

10.80 
10.50 
10.90 

10.80 
10.70 
10.50 

» 

10.20 
17.00 
10.50 
13-50 



8.40 



10.70 



7-50 



8.70 



10.40 



10.40 



10.46 



13-50 

9-30 
10.40 
5-90 
5.60 
2,00 

10.80 
10.70 
10.70 
12.00 

9.00 
5-70 

8.60 
10.20 

6.50 
10.20 
10.30 

9.60 
10.20 
10.80 
I 

10.30 
10.70 
10.90 

9.70 

[0.20 
[O.4O 
[1. 00 



J 4 Lowest 
Salaried 
Pastors 



8-35 



10.54 



8.45 



10.70 

8.00 
10.50 
5-50 
5-90 
8.00 

10.50 
10.70 
10.70 
10.70 

9.00 
7.00 



8.75 



10.45 



9.00 
8.00 
7.00 
9-50 
8.50 

9-50 
10.30 
10.30 

10.50 
10.40 
10.70 

10.20 
9.00 
9.00 

10.50 



170 
Other 
Gradu- 
ates 



8.16 



to.50 



8.03 



.80 



10.50 



10.40 



10.60 



[0.95 

9-13 

[0.15 
5-18 
5-70 
1.90 

10.27 
10.40 
10.32 
10.60 

8.30 
7.90 

9.80 
8.90 
7.86 
9.20 
9-55 

10.38 
10.34 
10.78 

10.36 
10.40 
10.52 

10.09 
10.40 
10.60 
10.65 



Values of Curriculum Subjects in College and Seminary 97 



TABLE XXXMU— Continued 
Comparison of Median Ratings of College Subjects 



Voice and Ear . . . 
Music and Singing . 
(Speaking subjects 

only) 

Elocution, Oratory . 
Speaking and Debate 



2 Editors 
and 75 
Execu- 
tives 



10.30 



10.70 



10.50 
10.70 



22 Edu- 
cators 



38 Highest 
Salaried 
Pastors 



10.70 



10.70 



10.50 
10.50 



12.50 



10.66 

10.80 
15.20 



34 Lowest 
Salaried 
Pastors 



10.80 



10.35 

10.80 
12.50 



170 
Other 
Gradu- 
ates 



10.40 



10.90 



10.77 
15.00 



while the median of the executives for the whole group is 11, and 
for the low-salaried pastors barely 10. 

There is a wider divergence regarding the voice and ear groups 
than in the others. These all receive more than their share of zeros, 
have as many lo's as most of the other subjects and receive many 
of the highest ratings. Some individuals indicated that the work 
was taken in college during the theological course, others that special 
training in outside schools of oratory had been taken. The high- 
salaried pastors seemed to have made the most of this in their col- 
lege course, and the executives during theological school. Perhaps 
this indicates a selective trend. 

Systematic theology and ethics have high ratings. These are 
apparently of nearly equal value to all groups except that the 
executives place ethics higher and systematic theology lower than 
any of the other groups. Systematic theology seems to win its 
highest regard from the educators and from the low-salaried pas- 
tors. 

The numerous comments from the earlier graduates expressing 
regret that psychology, religious education, and social science 
were not available in their day, and conviction that they would 
have been "immensely valuable," are in strange contrast to the 
many low ratings and even zeros given by those who did take them. 
Perhaps these differences are quite explicable when one reads the 
earlier textbooks and realizes that in the days first following their 
introduction the methods were almost invariably abstract rather 
than experimental. 



98 



Success in the Christian Ministry 



TABLE XXXVIII 
Comparison of Median Ratings of Theological School Subj 



ECTS 



English 

Composition, Sermons 
Literature 

Languages 

Semitic 

Greek 

Oriental and Phonics 

History 

Church and Institu- 
tions 

Geography, Archae- 
ology 

Missions, Evangelism 

Exegesis 

Hebrew 

Greek 

English 

Doctrine 

History and Develop- 
ment 

Systematic Theology 
Apologetics .... 

Practical Theology . 

Denominational Pol- 
ity and Adminis- 
tration 

Parish and Pastoral 
Problems .... 

Homiletics 

Praxis 

Comparative Religions 
History and Philos- 
ophy of 

Psychology of . . . 
Relation to Missions 



2 Editors 
and 75 
Execu- 
tives 



10.20 



10.60 
10.90 

9-50 

10.60 

8.00 



9.90 



9.40 



9.50 

9-50 
13.00 

9-50 
9.40 
9-50 



9-30 



7.50 



9.40 
9.40 
9-50 



7 -50 

9.70 

10.80 

7-50 



10.90 



10.90 
10.70 
12.50 



22 Edu- 
cators 



10.50 



10.50 



10.30 
17-50 

8.80 

[2.00 
5.00 



10.60 



12.50 



14.00 

10.20 
10.30 

12.50 
15.40 
10.80 



10.80 



10.70 
15.40 
10.80 



9.80 



10.30 
10.10 

8.50 



15.40 



13.00 
20.50 
12.50 



3Q Highest 
Salaried 
Pastors 



10.82 



5.70 



10.80 
12.50 

7.00 
10.40 



10.60 



10.6 



ID. 80 

5.80 
10.20 

10.40 
10.80 
10.90 



10.70 



10.50 
12.50 
10.30 



10.30 



10.30 

10.20 

10.80 

8.50 



10.50 



10.55 
10.40 
10.60 



40 Lowest 
Salaried 
Pastors 



10.70 



.90 



10.80 
10.70 

8.90 
10.20 
10.00 



10.40 



10.60 



10.50 

9.70 
10.70 

8.70 
10.40 
12.00 



10.80 



10.30 
15-50 
10.70 



10.60 



10.70 

10.90 

8.50 



10.50 



10.40 
10.50 
10.90 



J89 
Other 
Gradu- 
ates 



10.30 



9.80 



10.77 
10.70 

8.10 

10.32 

4.00 



10.50 



10.70 



10.61 

10.16 
10.61 

10.01 
10.74 
13.50 



10.60 



10.45 

12.33 
10.58 



10.50 



10.73 
10.80 
10.46 



10.40 



10.43 
10.42 
10.46 



'alucs of Curriculum Subjects in College and Seminary 



99 



TABLE XX.X.VU\— Continued 
Comparison of Median R.\tings of Theological School Subjects 



Social Science . . . 
Social Theory . . . 
Problems and Labora- 
tory 

Religious Education . 
Educational Theory . 
Educational Material 
Problems and Labora- 
tory 

Music and Singing 

Voice and Ear . . . 
Elocution, Oratory . 
Sp>eaking and Debate 



2 Editors 
and 15 
Execu- 
tives 


22 Edu- 
cators 


39 Highest 
Salaried 
Pastors 


40 Lowest 
Salaried 
Pastors 


13-50 


12.50 


10.60 


10.30 


10.90 


11.00 


10.60 


9.00 


17.50 


15.00 


10.60 


10.50 


15.00 


17-50 


10.40 


10.90 


15.00 


10.90 


10.40 


10.60 


10.60 


30.00 


9.00 


10.80 


25.00 










20.00 


15.60 


12.00 


10.70 


11.00 


10.70 


8.70 


12.00 


10.60 


10.60 


10.70 


10.80 


10.60 


10.60 


10.70 


15.00 


10.60 


10.50 


10.90 



189 

other 
Gradu- 
ates 



10.60 



10.40 



10.30 



10.28 
10.23 



[0.71 



10.36 



10.80 
10.80 
10.91 



4. Summary and Conclusions 

The opinions of this body of men, based on their experiences 
in various fields of the Christian ministry for the last one or two 
decades, are interesting and significant, but not conclusive. The 
ratings raise as many questions as they answer. 

History, literature, systematic theology and ethics seem to 
prove their right to a fundamental place in college and theological 
curricula. The answers indicate a definite desire that these shall 
be extended and vitalized. Many of the letters and comments 
indicate a conviction that much can be sacrificed if vital contact 
w4th the real problem.s of the ministry is established during student 
days so that the problems may be solved with the help of strong 
and stimulating personalities in the faculty. Knowledge of people 
and of life as well as of subjects and theories is one of the insistent 
demands volunteered in the replies to the questionnaires. 

Perhaps physics and chemistry do have less to do with people 
than with the commercial and industrial professions, but geology 



loo Success in the Christian Ministry 

and astronomy lie at the base of our whole view of the universe 
in which we live. They have been used by some preachers to give 
to common people, overwhelmed with pettinesses and with the 
pressure of crowded days, the stimulus of infinity and the "sweep 
of cosmic processes." Spiritual life is certainly life, and its laws of 
growth are bound up with all that biology has discovered. Also, 
community health, freedom from social diseases, education in 
effective use of the body for spiritual ends and "fullness of life" 
are all dependent on this fundamental science. What is the reason 
that so many ministers find it of no "practical" use? 

When all the nations are with us, why are the modern languages 
placed so low by every group? The men who answered quite evi- 
dently have not to any great extent used what instruction they 
have received. Most of them have been continuously in pastorates 
among wholly English speaking people. But if the instruction had 
been accompanied by everyday use in speech instead of being 
used solely in reading a certain amount of modern classics, would 
they have found opportunity to use these modern languages in 
the communities they served? The background of the peoples who 
are with us or to whom our daily relations extend in other countries 
is essential to ministers of to-day far more than to those of ten years 
ago. This should be gained from the history of missions and of 
modern Europe and from the study of the religions and philosophies 
alien to us. 

Is religious education to be a distinct field, a profession allied 
to but separated from the ministry? Should not the science of teach- 
ing be essential to the preacher in preparing his sermons? Should 
not a pastor know the psychological laws of comforting and en- 
couraging, and the instinctive reactions which he must stimulate 
in those who are threatened with moral collapse? 

One thing seems to stand out beyond all others: the value of 
a subject depends directly on the way that it is taught, and the 
recognized values are in that teaching which stimulates the student 
to face his own problems in the practical work of the ministry and 
develops in him the ability to do his own thinking in the principles 
underlying his whole choice and method of work. It would take 
the reproduction of all the individual replies to show, what is lost 
in the summaries and averages and medians of the tabulated figures, 
the influence of personality and method on the value to any in- 
dividual of any subject matter. There is a difference in the value 



Values of Curriculum Subjects in College and Seminary loi 

of the subjects themselves, but there is a greater difference in the 
chance to get the values they have. 

Different personalities desire and require a wide range of elec- 
tives, and there is evident a distinct tendency among theological 
schools, in the years since those included in this study, more widely 
to extend that range. Some are even omitting the requirements 
for the ancient languages. The opinions here tabulated indicate 
that further changes along these lines and still wider inclusions of 
any subjects which may have bearing on individual and community 
life will be valuable in the training of the Christian minister. 

One of the chief conclusions established by the earlier portions 
of this study is that success in the ministry depends more on gen- 
eral ability to work with both people and ideas than upon any 
specific intellectual interest or group of interests. Men with the 
experimenting, inventing, and executive types of mind are as much 
needed as the "book-minded." It is the latter who now get the high- 
est grades, and are the most appreciative of the present curricula. 
(Compare the ratings given by the educators in Tables XXXVII 
and XXXVIII with their grades in Tables XIII-XVI.) What 
kind of curricula would attract and prepare for success the types 
of able men who have seldom entered this field? 









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